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Home > Exhibitions > Future Exhibitions > Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre > Gallery: Creating Filthy Lucre

Creating Filthy Lucre

<em>Work on <em>Filthy Lucre</em> began in mid-2013. With the north wall constructed and primed red, Darren Waterston mixes paint in his studio at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Derek Parker, the preparatory and fabrication shop manager at MASS MoCA, served as chief carpenter and engineer for <em>Filthy Lucre</em>. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>In October 2013 Waterston primed the west wall with studio assistant Daniel Greenfield. A final color test and handmade vases are behind them. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>An early stage of Waterston’s version of Whistler’s painting <em>The Princess from the Land of Porcelain</em> rests on the mantel. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Waterston and his team collected and painted scores of ceramics to recreate the Peacock Room’s appearance in the Freer. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>By December 2013, Waterston and his studio assistants were priming and painting dozens of ceramic vessels to fill the tilting shelves of <em>Filthy Lucre</em>. Courtesy MASS MoCA </em>.

<em>Waterston approached the ceramics with a painter’s eye. “Each one essentially became a little three-dimensional canvas. They are all very painterly in nature.” Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>With the painting and gilding nearing completion, Waterston experimented with arranging painted ceramic vessels on the west wall. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Fabricating the ceiling and light fixtures posed a challenge. To form the ceiling, a skeleton of aluminum was cut, welded, and fitted with fiberglass. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Just like the walls, each ceiling section was primed and painted. The exposed aluminum frames were painted gold to imitate gilding. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Waterston’s initial sketches for the “stalactite” ceiling lanterns resemble those in the Peacock Room–but with drips and shattered panes of glass. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Glass artist Debora Coombs helped Waterston create the light fixtures. Each glass panel was carefully fitted into a metal framework. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Debora Coombs, a stained glass artist in Vermont, built the metal frames of the light fixtures that house Waterston’s hand-painted glass panels. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Coombs discusses the light fixtures with Richard Criddle, director of fabrication and installation at MASS MoCA. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Criddle secures in place the first of eight light fixtures in Filthy Lucre. Courtesy MASS MoCA</em>.

<em>Waterston’s studio in North Adams as it looked in November 2013, midway through completion of <em>Filthy Lucre</em>. Courtesy MASS MoCA </em>.

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