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The Big Frieze for Summit
Summit Steel installed over 7km of 4mm steel wire rope (SWR) in the five largest (of nine) structures in Regents Park for the 2005 Frieze Arts Fair in London.
The largest tent measured 200 by 40 metres and approximately 9 metres high. The others were 120 x 40 metres, 35 x 24 metres, 45 x 32m and 55 x 50m. The 200m tent is the largest structure of its kind that tent suppliers Owen Brown have built to date.
Summit was working for production company 20/20 Events, production managed by Steve Cunningham. Their team of four riggers and two crew was led by Jay Call, and came onsite just seven days before the event opened. The Kent-based company has worked on Frieze Arts for the last three years, and each year its role has steadily increased with the stature and popularity of the event.
The wires served two purposes: firstly, to enable the installation of false ceilings at 4.2m above the floor; these were constructed from white cloth to diffuse the lighting installed above. The ceilings also concealed rigging for a number of galleries who approached Summit to suspend a variety of artworks, and to hide heating ducting running throughout the tents.
Secondly, an additional set of wires was installed to suspend the heating ducting itself at 4.7m above the floor. The ducting had vents spaced along its length, and the ceiling was neatly cut into and married up to them so the heat wafted evenly through the structures.
A major task, reveals Jay Call, was taking care not to over tension the wires or to damage the beam structure of the tents. This was accomplished by using plastic tubing over the SWR, and by installing drop wires at regular intervals along the length of the beams to help lift the SWR and keep it at the required height. This way a much lower tension could be applied without producing sag in the ceiling.
Summit also suspended a variety of individual artworks for the four-day duration of the event. These include installations for Sadie Coles Gallery, Senn Galerie and Lehmann Maupin.
They also installed catenary wires 3 metres high for the installation of further false ceilings over individual galleries and the cinema, and attached catenary wires around the perimeter of the VIP tent, utilized for hanging drapes.
Additionally, Summit constructed the main entrance sign - in two parts - either side of the gate. It was built from scaffolding sitting over a hedgerow marking the perimeter of the park. The impressive piece stood approximately 2.5 metres high and was 5 metres long, ballasted with over 3 tonnes of counterweights to deal with any high winds.
Summit also provided trussing and rigging for the main auditorium lighting and projection. This was a 10m straight run across the width of the tent, picked up with five points, with care taken not to overload the roof beam.
“The most galvanising aspect of the whole project was definitely the seven day time-frame that we had to complete the whole build,” says Call. For all tents this meant the construction of the tent itself, putting in the floor, lifting of the roof beams and skinning etc, followed by the lighting and sound installation, Summit’s rigging, the heating systems, the ceilings and laying the carpet. All this was before any individual galleries can even be constructed.
26th October 2005
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