Julian Opie Limestone & Bronze Frieze for Bermuda Hotel

When the Hamilton Princess Hotel & Beach Club in Bermuda commissioned Julian Opie to design a 13m long installation for its marina, Opie designed a frieze featuring his signature stylised figures in patinated bronze inlaid into Antalya Cream limestone. He turned to stoneCIRCLE to create the artwork for him as the firm had previously worked with him on his installation at the CitizenM, Tower of London Hotel.

The figures were 5mm thick and are inlaid flush with the surface of the limestone blocks. They were cut out on stoneCIRCLE’s waterjet cutter and patinated in the Basingstoke factory. The limestone was cut on the Omag machine and the bronze glued in before shipping. Each panel was bonded to lightweight honeycomb for strength and to reduce weight, notwithstanding that the biggest panels weighed 230 kg.

The finished panels were loaded into a bespoke crate and shipped by sea freight to Bermuda. Barry Woodley and Steve Vanhinsbergh then flew out to Bermuda to install them in 5 days before returning to the UK.

There are more images and a time lapse video of the installation on the stoneCIRCLE website.

--Stonecircle 10:30, 01 Jun 2018 (BST)

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