BRINGING 'BRIGHT OLD THINGS' TO LIFE AT SELFRIDGES
January 2015
Amazingly individual windows
The Selfridges windows team once again collaborated with Propability to produce January windows that hit the headlines, as the annual Selfridges ‘Bright Young Things’ concept was delivered with a twist. Capturing the work of fourteen designers and artists, ‘Bright Old Things’ made a showcase of inspirational career changes and displayed a unique artistic creation in each of the store’s Oxford Street windows.
Working to achieve artistic vision
Propability worked across the project dealing directly with seven out of the fourteen artists, in conjunction with Selfridges, to interpret and produce the windows. A range of expertise was employed - from model making, painting, sculpting to computerised wire cutting. The project utilised the full breadth and experience of our skilled craftsman and designers.
An awe-inspiring display for the millions passing by
Recreating the vision of Todd Selby was one of the projects most challenging tasks – as Sculpted 3D faceted walls coated in stage-coat were painted to reflect the artwork supplied. They spanned 3 meters high and covered 11 meters in total – all based on Todd’s original watercolor illustrations. Various elements were drawn together to build a completely unique display including: a gold train with three carriages on a clear acrylic layout supported by CNC cut Dibond supports and various painted 3D items. The items included: a Statue of Rome, a Polar bear, Toucan, Faberge egg, dinosaurs and a Rainbow to go over the train track!
For the famous London hedge-trimmer, Tim Bushe, polystyrene sculpts of topiary cats were created with topiary matting painstakingly applied using more than 600 hairpins to fix to the models. The creation of 70’s underground legend Bruno Wizard’s Octopunk was sculpted to span a five-metre window and scenically painted. For Nick Wooster, Propability produced the back wall to the window, which featured 280 Nick Wooster heads - lighting it up to full effect! Other artists Propability worked with were: Roger Myles, creating an over-sized retro record player with spinning vinyl disc; Molly Parkin, building a side and back wall with door and window to reflect Molly’s home on the World End Estate Chelsea and for Den Woods a tree sculpt with roots - spanning 3 meters long which created a spectacular silhouette effect.
“Thanks again for having Todd to the prop factory, he says everything is looking amazing!! We saw photos of the pieces and cannot say enough great things on how everything is looking. Please let us know if there is anything else you need from our end! Also, I wanted to see what happens with the props once the windows come down? Would Todd be able to keep the pieces or give them to his team?”
“Just a quick line to say thank you very much! We are so happy with the octopus and really appreciate all your amazing work!”
“Bonkers but brilliant!”
