Travel Between The Pages

On London’s Southwark Street, just south of the River Thames, you’ll find Alex Chinneck’s unnerving, life-size project, A pound of flesh for 50p. Starting as a full-scale, two-story house made out of 8,000 wax bricks, the sculpture will eventually be a mess of rooftop and melted wax by mid-November.

The House of Wax sculpture is part of Merge Festival, an annual series of art, music and performances that draws on the heritage and culture of London’s Bankside. Chinneck’s project celebrates the history of a former candle-making factory from the 18th century. It’s an amazing homage that not only required substantial construction skills, but also entailed the artist spending a year consulting with engineers, chemists and wax manufacturers to develop uncannily convincing bricks that mimic real walls.

The house installation is designed to disintegrate over a month and will also undergo some manual melting over time to shape the façade. The brilliance of using wax as a medium allows for stunning unpremeditated dripping, deforming and morphing.

You can follow the process at the artist’s website or at the Merge Festival site.