Kara Walker Fons Americanus
Kara Walker Studio
Sculptural Cork Fountain for 2020 Hyundai Turbine Hall Commission
Fons Americanus was a deeply challenging project, and one that mattered to everyone involved. We were responsible for design development through to fabrication and installation, working directly with Kara Walker to realise a piece uncompromising in both scale and intent.
The work needed to fill the Turbine Hall, hold water, and carry immense narrative detail, while being made in a more responsible way than industry convention would allow. Millimetre proposed and developed an alternative build system using steamed cork, FSC timber, and minimal steel, replacing the polystyrene and heavy composites typically used at this scale.
Kara spent extended periods in the workshop, refining form, texture, and mark-making with the team. Artists, sculptors, engineers, and makers were brought together, with Kara and lead sculptor Harriet keeping the work consistent across the many figures and surfaces.
Materials were pushed, systems rethought, and limitations understood rather than avoided. The workshop balanced experimentation with the control required to deliver work of this scale in a live public building.
The completed work was widely engaged with by the public, strongly received by critics, and praised by both Tate and Hyundai. For Millimetre, it marked a step change, proving that lower-carbon making and expanded capability can sit comfortably at scale.
Materials
- Approx. 2000 sheets of high-density Portuguese steam-baked cork
- Approx. 10 tonnes of u2018Portland Stoneu2019 cementous jesmonite
- Untreated softwood
- FSC spruce plywood
- Mild Steel reinforcements
- u2018Biou2019 resin and low VOC wood Epoxy
- 35m3 of water and some Bromide salts
- Pumping and filtering equipment