112 MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN


Craig-Martin wondered if anyone had even noticed it. Years later he was speaking with the artist Tracey Emin who had fond childhood memories of the piece. In 2011, the new Turner Contemporary gallery, designed by David Chipperfi eld, was being completed in Margate and Craig-Martin was commissioned to remake the sculpture for the gallery’s foyer, where it greets visitors to this day. T e open book motif was also used in 2000 when he collaborated with Sauerbruch Hutton on the conversion of a seven-storey building in central Berlin to accommodate the HQ of the British Council in Germany. Here, above the sinuous shelving of the fi rst-fl oor library, is the


Tiled artwork depicts a series of vibrantly coloured everyday


objects, such as a milk carton, an umbrella and a wristwatch


artist’s lively ceiling painting of books; visible from the street below, it injects a burst of colour into the dark wood interior space. More prominent is the 2017 public mural Folkestone Lightbulb, which was commissioned by the Folkestone Triennial. T e image of an energy- saving bulb appears like a beacon above the junction of two of the most important streets in Folkestone’s old town: Tontine Street and T e Old High Street, at the gateway to the Creative Quarter. ‘I always look for something that has some sense of appropriateness to the circumstance and also something that visually makes sense in terms of its location,’ Craig- Martin has explained. T e form of the bulb


This page Michael Craig-Martin, Street Life, 2009, Woolwich Arsenal DLR. Curated by Modus Operandi © Alan Williams,


alanwilliamsphotography.com


ALL IMAGES: COURTESY OF THE DLR


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