Hackney Mosaic Project At London Zoo
Tessa Hunkin works on her mosaic while lions prowl nearby
I accompanied Tessa Hunkin of Hackney Mosaic Project to the lions’ enclosure at London Zoo when she installed her masterpiece while big cats prowled around. Commissioned by the Zoological Society of London, the magnificent mosaic was the result of four months work involving around thirty people, with a core of fifteen experienced mosaicists, to create a centrepiece for the ‘Land of the Lions’ attraction at the Zoo.
The six panels of the mosaic portray the forest of Gir in Gujarat which is the origin of the lions at London Zoo. In Tessa’s design, Langur monkeys harvest fruit in the tree tops while Chital deer follow them below, scavenging windfalls and leftovers dropped from above. Yet this relationship serves a dual purpose for the Chital, since the Langurs see lions coming from far away, thereby warning the Chital when to take flight.
All through the winter months, the team at Hackney Mosaic worked in the pavilion on Hackney Downs, painstakingly glueing thousands of tiny tesserae to a large brown paper panel with Tessa’s design traced in reverse. Once this was complete, the panels were impressed onto a rendered wall at the zoo by Walter Bernardin, a mosaicist of lifelong experience, and the paper was removed to reveal the finished mosaic in all its glory, with the design the right way round.
It was a tense process, tearing away the backing paper without removing pieces of mosaic and then applying grouting. In fact, so all-consuming was this task that Tessa and Walter continued at their work without even noticing the lions prowling around in curiosity…
The team at Hackney Mosaic with the completed mosaic
Tessa’s final design
Photo composite of the work in progress, seen in reverse (click to enlarge)
The first panel installed at London Zoo
Mosaicist Walter Bernadin removes the backing paper and fixes the mosaic with grouting
The completed mosaic installed at London Zoo
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The Mosaic Makers of Hackney Downs
Thank you for including the full color SKETCH! I live for sketches, layouts, swatch boards, notes, scribbles, and anything that captures the thought process. The completed mural is so mannered, wonderfully executed, beautifully conceived and visually balanced………while the sketch reminds us that all of this Design Excellence began with IDEAS, bursts of inspiration, revisions, and (dare I say) perhaps some messiness?
Since I know absolutely nothing about mosaic installations, I was interested to know how the paper backing is utilized. I was also fascinated by the undulating top edge of the mural. To me, this was a “surprise” inclusion that added visual softness to the hard edges and materials.
S’wonderful!