Award-winning artist Sinta Tantra was commissioned by Newnham to create an installation stretching the length of the historic red brick corridor between the Kennedy Building and Peile Hall. Newnham’s buildings comprise a series of elegant halls linked by corridors and set around the College’s gardens. The corridors are an important feature of the College and Newnham is believed to be home to one of the longest continuous corridors in Europe.
The artwork combines striking coloured geometric motifs on the inner walls and a series of stunning hand-blown glass pendants suspended from the ceiling. It is titled ‘A Means of Liberation’ which references a quote by 20th century artist Henri Matisse, ‘Colour even more than drawing, is a means of liberation’.
Motifs, shapes and colours for the installation were inspired by histories and stories of and from Newnham – the Newnham crest, the curved architectural lines of the building and objects and artefacts from the college archive.
Glassmaker: Stewart Heare
Paint Sponsorship: Morrells
Images Sinta Tantra
By incorporating the original brickwork into the design, Tantra layers the past with the present. The result is an artwork that becomes immersive, activated as people walk through.
As light falls on the pendants and panels, pools of coloured light crescendo and dim at various points of the day.
Tantra is known for her digitally-designed, architectural paintings. However this installation uniquely combines the language of industry, seen in the machine cut wall panels, with the traditional craft of the hand-blown pendants.