Thomas Kilpper. Artist. London.

Woodcut on fabric.

Woodcut on paper.

The Ring series was a site-specific project created in Orbit House, a series of office building in the London's Southwark. Orbit House was abandoned and scheduled for demolition when Kilpper gained access to the building in 1999. He carved a giant woodcut into the mahogany covering the 10th floor. The woodcut depicted a boxing ring surrounded by an audience of characters whose names were cut (with chisels+chainsaw) around the edge of the image. Kippler used photographs+etchings to create the portraits. He then made this series of prints on new and found materials: old curtains left in the building: advertising hoarding paper and sheets of purple UV polythene film.
The subjects/events of the woodcuts are all related to the location+to Kippler: In the early 1900s it was one of London’s earliest cinemas, it then became a boxing venue, The Ring, and doubled as a soup kitchen, music hall and theatre, hosting productions of Shakespeare. It was also used by Alfred Hitchcock as the set for his silent movie The Ring in 1926.
-Elizabeth Manchester. September 2003. Tate modern.