Anatomy of a Corporate Art Project #2: Island Creek Oyster Bar, Boston
Early March 2010, I was approached by Garrett Harker, the owner of Eastern Standard Kitchen and Drinks about an new project he was starting in partnership with the Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, MA. He asked me to create a piece of art for his new restaurant, and the space for me to work with was one whole wall in the dining room. Initially I was thinking it would be something along the lines of what I had done for him at Eastern Standard. As it turned out the wall was 15 feet by 38 feet!!
Here is a photographic document of the process from scouting to sketching to installation. Enjoy!
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- Arrival at ICO at 5 am.
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- Motoring out to the sandbar/farm
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- Squid eggs.
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- Organizing the traps one by one.
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- Traps layed out in a grid.
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- Tide has lowered enough to begin digging.
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- Lobster in his nest.
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- on the oyster beds with my Speed Graphic press camera
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- The tide is beginning to rise again.
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- portrait of yours truly by Karan Wong
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- Retrieving the boat.
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- First rinse of the oysters.
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- A little extra prize in the days haul.
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- Tide is half way up to high.
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- The sorting and cleaning hut.
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- The crew.
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- an example of a sketch comprised of 4 Polaroid negatives
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- The final sketch is approved
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- Getting the wall ready
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- second coat of primer
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- Finn helps me with the test prints
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- first coat of orange paint goes on
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- after the second coat of orange paint, and a test square of the art is taped up
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- The first square is up.
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- The squares are adhered to the wall with industrial strength double stick tape.
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- The grid is not a uniform grid. I matched the horizontal lines of the wall to the left (cages filled with oyster shells!), and I lined the verticals up with the breaks in the ceiling fixtures.
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- all panels are up!
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- new employees familiarize themselves with the space. (one week until opening)
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- My family and I come in for a “test” serving. (one day before official opening) (here you can see the oyster shell wall up close)
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- Island Creek Oyster Bar just before opening.
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- art up and ICOB is ready for business
The artwork was printed, mounted and installed by ICL Imaging in Framingham, MA.
The Interior Design for ICOB was done by Bentel & Bentel, form NY, NY.
THis is awesome
Thanks Ron!
The finished wall looks amazing and the process looked like a good time. Inspiring work!!
Thank you Brian, it was tons of fun and I worked with and met some awesome people in the process.
Beautiful work. Would you please explain the reason for “flipping” the image?
At least I see it upside down from here.
Thanks
Ludmilla
Hi Ludmilla,
Thank you for commenting.
I flipped the image for a number of reasons. The main reason is that it felt right.
another reason was that the image as immediately readable right side up. turing the image up side down made it less obvious what is was and allowed the viewer to spend more time with it. Also it allows the viewer to come up with his or her own opinion about what was happening.
another reason was that the interior designer had built a “horizon line” into the space and if I was to use that image it would not make sense to have a horizon line in the middle of the wall AND a horizon line at the top.
I hope that helped
cheers
stephen