JUSTICE SHINES BY ITS OWN LIGHT


Justice shines by its own light is a series of photographic images designed for the building wrap and hoardings during the building project for the new UK Supreme Court (UKSC) building in the former Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square, London that opened in 2009. The 12 images (one for each of the Law Lords) show the view looking out of the existing building's windows. Gothic windows frame views of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The images of the windows have been taken from a variety of public and private areas in the building: the closed stained-glass façade windows in the public area outside Supreme Courtroom One; the outward opening windows of Court Room Two; the elegantly shaped windows of the Justice Room. Many of the images show windows that are half-open, revealing the outside world in which the UKSC plays an important part. They symbolise an outward looking building as well as the transition to a more transparent and open design for the home of the new UK Supreme Court. The greyscale images are printed onto perspex and backed with dichroic film that creates subtle shifts in colour and tone as the images are viewed from different angles. This design was unrealized. It was part of the larger UKSC art commission programme run by architects Feilden + Mawson which included permanent work by artists such as Sir Peter Blake and Yinka Shonibare.