£5,000
MODERN MADE: Modern & Post-War Art, Design & Studio Ceramics | 618
Auction: 23 October 2020 at 10:00 BST
display cabinet in plywood, MDF, mirror and glass
Exhibited:
Dovecot, Edinburgh, Grayson Perry: Julie Cope's Grand Tour, July-November 2019.
Heavenly Mansions was commissioned by Dovecot Studios for the Grayson Perry exhibition Julie Cope’s Grand Tour. It was designed by Charles Holland as a cabinet of curiosities displaying sketches, maquettes and artefacts from the design process between Grayson Perry and the architects FAT (where Holland was a Director) as they worked towards creating A House for Essex, their collaborative design for a contemporary wayside chapel.
Like the house itself, the piece combines a number of influences including Russian wooden architecture, medieval and pilgrimage chapels, jewelled reliquaries and ancient tombs. It sits somewhere between display cabinet, dressing table and mausoleum.
The title, Heavenly Mansions, refers to the title of a book by John Summerson, the first curator of the John Soane Museum – another building that influenced the design of A House of Essex. In the essay, Summerson discusses the history of aedicular structures, little buildings that inhabit larger ones. In this sense, the cabinet captures in miniature many qualities of the house itself.