Profile: Tom Piper
What is art? It’s been a question put to theatre designer Tom Piper since he helped create the moving First World War poppies installation at the Tower of London.
Words by Emily Martin
Photos by Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Due to his role in the phenomenally popular Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Tom Piper's name entered the mainstream, along with ceramicist Paul Cummins. From May to November 2014 an estimated five million people visited the Tower of London to watch the installation unfold and fill the grassed moat space with a sea of red ceramic poppies, in a metaphor of one poppy for one British and Colonial soldier's life lost during the 1914-18 war.
Whether is was 'successful' is debatable for Piper when describing the 'poppies' project. While it captured the hearts, minds and imaginations of many, it divided the art world.
Some critics challenged his credentials for delivering something to be termed 'art'. 'When the poppies started, nobody quite knew what it was; we didn't set out to say "this is an art work",' says Piper, who has worked as a theatre designer since school days. 'The way the Tower of London approached it was to produce an installation.'
Views of the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London, by Tom Piper and ceramicist Paul Cummins
Although never on stage himself, while at school Piper volunteered to build the set for the end-of-year show, complete with a life-size model of a Volkswagen Golf, which he built from wood. His simple explanation of taking on the project and building the elaborate set? 'Because I liked making tree houses.'
Studying art history at Cambridge, Piper teamed up with his school friend and fellow Cambridge student Sam Mendes to put on plays. Together they toured to Edinburgh, Avignon and northern Europe, with Piper designing more than 30 sets during his four student years.
'I was always aware of theatre and enjoyed it', he says. 'When I was a teenager I remember watching videos of things like the Mystery Plays and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.' Piper's mother wrote plays and was a reader for the Royal Court. He recalls an upbringing with the likes of Edward Bond and other so-called 'Angry Young Men' being around at home, so it's not surprising that theatre rubbed off on him in one way or another.
Piper's career intention was never for one in the theatre or art world. In fact he had intended to enter a science profession, only changing his mind while at Cambridge. He then decided to study a postgraduate course in theatre design at the Slade art school as a way to cement his already extensive experience. 'It wasn't the best course, and I was probably impatient at that age,' he says. 'There were some very useful elements, like life drawing, but I don't see myself as an artist in that sense of the word. The Slade was very art-orientated and people would talk about how to express yourself [through art], but I was much more interested in the ideas behind the piece than the way you portray it.'
Views of the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London, by Tom Piper and ceramicist Paul Cummins
Although completing the course, Piper went to Paris part-way through his degree to work with Chloe Obolensky on Peter Brook's production of The Tempest. Piper had identified theatre design as a more involved process: combining practical skills with intellect and interpretation of other collaborators of the production, such as directors, doesn't present a designer 'with a blank piece of paper' and was frustrated with The Slade's interpretation of theatre design.
But Piper's inclusive way of working prompted some art critics to damn the poppy project, with Piper (and other newspapers) reacting to one particular review from The Guardian's visual arts critic, Jonathan Jones, calling it 'a deeply aestheticised, prettified and toothless war memorial'.
'I found this [his description] slightly tripe; for me a work of art is something that moves people or engages -- even challenges -- them,' says Piper. 'For whatever reason, the installation really did seem to move a lot of people.
Jonathan Jones would have perhaps regarded that as being sentimental, akin to chocolate-box art or something like that. Because it was so-called pretty or beautiful, there was a rejection from the art critics.'
Populist work and mass-media interest seems to void artist value, he says, pointing out that the poppies, one of the most visited public installations of 2014, missed out on a Turner Prize nomination yet swept up other awards, including one that beat a Grayson Perry entry. Rejected by the art world, including a dismissal because he was a theatre designer from Plymouth, it was offset with support from contemporary artists, including Cornelia Parker and David Mach, but still left Piper feeling frustrated.
'A theatre designer working on a collaborative project and an artist doing a visual or experiential project -- so many of the fields are starting to overlap,' says Piper, who rejects the label 'visual artist'. 'The public want to see and have experiences, which is why the poppies worked; there were people who were planting, people came to watch that and the whole thing grew over time.'
'Curtain Up: Celebrating 40 Years of Theatre in London and New York', an exhibition currently running at the V&A, London until 31 August.
Piper's latest experience is at the V&A: collaborating with RFK Architects to produce the exhibition Curtain Up: Celebrating 40 Years of Theatre in London and New York. 'For me it was a huge challenge because I was presenting the work of fellow theatre designers; you're trying to celebrate them and their work while at the same time taking it beyond simply a display of model boxes and costume drawings,' he says. Piper says the key objective was to establish a design that visually quoted a show or production rather than seeming to rip it off, and involved working with other theatre designers to deliver the exhibition.
It's not often, if at all, that theatre designers are celebrated for their work, especially by critics. 'Theatre designers are trained to produce simple spaces for actors to tell a story in,' Piper says, 'so the audience doesn't see the space, it only sees the actors. The imagination is engaged with what the actors are doing to create images in their heads. Very rarely as a designer do you get a mention unless the design is really shouting something.
'Theatre design is not something theatre critics talk about, and contemporary art critics have an unsophisticated view of theatre.'
