The building's original occupant was an Art Deco figure maker named Giuseppe Leonardi. His ‘Leonardene' company used the building for the production of popular plaster cast Art Deco objects between 1934 and 1958.
‘Leonardi Ice Lollies' consisted of two parts. Part one was a white chest-freezer filled with ice-lollies. Part two a headphone containing a looped sound recording.
The shapes of the ice-lollies in the chest-freezer were fragments of an original Leonardi plaster cast face-mask acquired from an antiques dealer. Recasting details from the original object, the ice-lollies temporarily re-introduced and re-distributed Leonardi's work at Byam Shaw School of Art. The ice-lollies were available in different flavours and were packed in boxes inside the chest-freezer.
The sound piece consisted of a looped seven-minute recording in three parts. They were recordings of research in the London Metropolitan Archives and of
a telephone conversation with the Art Deco
antiques dealer.
MA Final Show
Byam Shaw School of Art
15 - 20 September 2008
London
UK
