Thank you so much to everyone who visited my installation for Absolut over London Cocktail Week! Here are Kish Kash (repeated in the reflection of the kaleidoscope, Camille Walala with Julia Jomaa, Grace Woodward with Kitty Joseph, Erika Soliven with Lena Romain and Louise Oliver, and bottom two photos thanks to ScottCanEat. Top photo is a self-portrait on my way at Tottenham Court Road Station.
Absolut chose the nation's new favourite cocktail as inspiration for their presence at London Cocktail Week with their "Porn Star Martini Townhouse". The immersive experience took each ingredient as an element to interpret across four floors of a beautiful Victorian building in Soho. I was brought on board to add my vision to the third floor for the zingy centre of the Porn Star Martini in a Passion Fruit Kaleidoscope. The multi-sensory journey through the townhouse brought to life the tastes, aromas and sensations of the cocktail which also includes Vanilla and Champagne. The final stop on the top floor of the house was an Absolut Vanilla Bar, where visitors were given the opportunity to take part in a mixologist master-class. The brand ambassador taught you how to make your own martini to finally taste all the flavours in the aromatic drink.
Here are shots from my initial development working with set builders "Scene 2" who helped convert by origami maquette into the final geodesic dome. I really like these shots to see the complete construction of the semisphere that we built to represent the passion fruit. This was concealed in the final installation as the experience was the inside world of the fractal form. Here you could lay down on a soft undulating floor (the seeds) to look up at your reflection in a spinning kaleidoscope. Part of the panelling was made from my favourite iridescent perspex which glowed a petroleum pink / purple / gold hue to perfectly echo the passion fruit colour palette. Here are the plastic samples and tests where we tried out different foils. These were also used in miniature icosahedrons hanging in the space as nectar pods to hold passion fruit marshmallows as the taste aspect of the immersive experience.
(bottom two photos sourced from Scene 2)
