23 Apr Whorled – Somerset House

The new courtyard commission by Somerset House from the Mumbai based artist Jitish Kallat is his first major public commission in the UK. A striking giant outdoor installation, the work comprises two intersecting spirals, 336 metres long and 30 metres wide, that echo the signage of UK roads and connects our iconic neoclassical courtyard both to locations across the planet and the distant universe.

Whorled is conceived as a seismic ripple or a galactic whorl, spiralling outwards from the centre of the courtyard. The work draws upon sacred geometry and alchemical diagrams, and like much of Kallat’s work, it interlaces the immediate and the cosmic, the past and present. Two vast, extended scrolls form interlocking spirals and a continuum of text and symbols which follow the visual identity of the UK’s road signage. These signs indicate the distance from Somerset House to locations across the planet and beyond, pointing to celestial bodies, such as the Moon, Mars, and distant stars in the Milky Way.

After consulting with the client, Imaginators were tasked with developing continuous giant prints to form the centre piece of this highly visible Somerset House courtyard installation. Printed to a specialist air permeable material using our 5m industrial Durst press which included discrete technical finishing to enable the method of installation to be hidden.