Walkie Talkie Melted My Golden Calf

At first glance this photograph appears to show London's skyline incorporating St. Paul's Cathedral. 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. The rivets fixing the print are visible. In the foreground artificial golden light from the street is reflected in a liquid that lies along a stone surface. The title plays with this in its reference to the incidence whereby cars on the street below the 'Walkie Talkie' building, or 20 Fenchurch Street, were damaged by the sun reflecting from the building's concave glass surface. 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.