Aplomb (St. Paul's)

At first glance this photograph appears to show London's skyline incorporating St. Paul's Cathedral and 30 St. Mary Axe (The Gherkin). However, it is actually a photograph of the hoardings outside the building site of The Pinnacle, which at that time was an intended skyscraper that had only reached 7 storeys after funding had ground to a halt in light of the 2008 financial crisis. A Computer Generated Image (CGI) of the future Pinnacle building and skyline was reproduced on the hoardings. This has been photographed together with the scaffolding pole in the foreground, a sack and the dust and grime which has affected the scene from the City street. Photographed at night and on 5 x 4 film, the work is in keeping with much of Blees Luxemburg's imagery. It is one of several images in the series 'London Dust' all of which focus on The Pinnacle building site and the visual play between reality and fiction, past, present and future to comment on the way in which we perceive and are led to perceive the Capital. The polished and seductive visual concepts of the future collide and become a part of what Blees Luxemburg describes as the 'joyously filthy reality' of the city.