Okay, for those of you who don’t watch TV or read the papers etc, let it be known that British Airways is the official carrier for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Let it also be known that while its logo is certain to appear all over your favourite summer media billboard, BA has also been involved in some less obviously purse related work: namely the Great Briton’s Programme, a competition intended to highlight the depth and excellence of British art and design. This is interesting shit, even for those who think sport a serious punishment.
Photographs © Nick Morrish
The depth and excellence of British art and design, yes, but don’t kid yourself. The brief an Olympic-air-plane link, the chutzpah big enough to attract the likes of Richard E Grant, Tracy Emin and Heston Blumenthal (the eventual winners’ mentors), this was never going to be the year the world discovered an entirely unknown great Briton.
Actor and screenwriter Prasanna Puwanarajah, chef Simon Hulstone and artist-designer Pascal Anson, the final choice, may not be household names, but they’ve been around; if not the block, then certainly their respective fields. Puwanarajah’s author of the (reasonably) critically acclaimed Nightwatchman; Hulstone’s already got a Michelin star; Anson’s made stuff for the big boys. They’re used to this.
Photograph © Tom Pilston, BA
Photographs © Nick Morrish
All the same, this is a mighty big stage. The Olympics in Britain only happens roughly once every 50 years. Brands like BA don’t come round twice. The exposure is unprecedented; and so – however good the mentoring – is the pressure. Happy to report, therefore, that BA2012, the programme’s launch, which took place in Shoreditch, at a pop-up restaurant-cum-gallery-cum-cinema, was an unmitigated success – for artists and sponsors alike.
Puwanarajah’s short film, Boy, about a father who works at the Olympic Velodrome, is beautiful – moving, balanced, superbly shot. Hulstone’s menu, inspired by the rations dictated foods of the 1948 Olympics, and served in the mocked-up hull of a BA carrier, is an out-and-out find, a giant and delicious nod in the direction of a cuisine once called New British.
© Dean Rogers
Photographs © Dave Waddell
Photograph © Nick Morrish
And if Anson’s Dove doesn’t quite convince, then it’s just that my idea of a plane’s livery – the sharp teethed, sharp eyed sharks and tigers of yesteryear’s customised warplanes – runs a different path to that of Anson’s design: it’s fine, it’s beautifully executed, but it doesn’t transform the plane; it doesn’t make it a dove. This said, his research – the sketches and photos pinned down both sides of the gallery – was a work in itself.
