Liz West’s Colour Transfer Installation Creates a Prism Wall Near London’s Paddington Station

Three years after studying sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art, Liz West found herself working a day job in event security. “But I had a hunger to create again,” she recalls. After a flurry of applications, West landed a solo show at Blankspace, a gallery in Manchester, U.K., showcasing work that is site-specific, immersive, and light-based. Since then, her temporary installations, such as Our Colour Reflection, composed of 765 acrylic mirrors placed in a former church, have garnered international attention.

Colour Transfer is her first permanent outdoor piece. Mounted to a wall along Westway Bridge pedestrian underpass in London, it consists of 30 angled forms in galvanized steel. The forms are clad in aluminum panels coated with a tinted PVC film that is activated by sunlight. The result is a rainbow band that changes appearance based on the weather as well as with the perspectives of passersby.