In the normally closed southwest tower of St Paul's Cathedral, Pawson housed his minimalist installation Perspectives. This tower is notable first of all for its beautiful spiral Geometric staircase, the steps of which are carved from carefully processed British limestone - "Portland stone".
In collaboration with Swarovski (forget about jewelry: the company makes the main profit by producing medical microscopes and military telescopes), Pawson made a completely smooth concave lens with a diameter of 40 cm. He placed it at the bottom of the stairwell, and installed a large concave mirror on the ceiling. The lens rests on a special pedestal shaped like a big drum. Its surface is polished, and the entire space of the tower is reflected in it, as if we saw it from above (this is a reflection of the reflection of the upper mirror); the lens, on the other hand, shows in detail the fine threading of the bottom surface of the ladder (i.e., a detailed bottom-up view).
Christopher Wren was a true Enlightenment man and was very interested in the achievements of modern science, so he would have appreciated the visual performance that concludes the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the great cathedral. You can admire the installation until the end of January 2012.
Konstantin Budarin
