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3,000 Miniature Storefronts Make Up London's New 'Tower of Babel'

A 20' tall sculptural portrait of London's retail life, from derelict shops, to boutiques and galleries.

Barnaby Barford's 'The Tower of Babel' installed in the V&A's Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

British ceramic artist Barnaby Barford has created a retail version of the Biblical Tower of Babel for London's V&A museum. Standing at 6m tall (nearly 20') The Tower of Babel is comprised of 3,000 bone china shops all made by the artist. Barford spent several years cycling around London's 32 boroughs, covering 1,000 miles to photograph 6,000 shop fronts, which he then repurposed for the installation.

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The photos were digitally placed onto ceramic casts and replicated, before being put through the firing process to produce them in bone china—which is typically made from finely ground cow bone—coming out at between 10 to 13 cm tall—and then stacked in the artwork. The Biblical tower was a melting pot for human language, but Bartford's tower is a different kind of melting pot.

“This is London in all its retail glory, our city in the beginning of the 21st century and I’m asking, how does it make you feel?" explains Barford. "I am overjoyed to be exhibiting in one of the world’s greatest museums, it is fantastic to have the opportunity to explore our contemporary society in such historic surrounds."

Barnaby Barford 'The Tower of Babel' bone china buildings (c) Barnaby Barford

The tower is a reflection, a celebration but also a criticism, of all the retail offerings Londoner's can consume. At the bottom is the more derelict type of shop and as the tower rises it takes in independent and charity shops, department stores, kebab and fish and chips shops, and then precariously balancing at the top are high-end boutiques and galleries.

"Barford’s ceramic Tower likens efforts to find fulfilment through consumerism with the biblical Tower of Babel’s attempt to reach heaven." notes the V&A.

Barnaby Barford's 'The Tower of Babel' installed in the V&A's Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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Alun Graves, curator of ceramics and glass at the V&A, calls the piece "part sculpture, part shop display" and "an act of curated commerce" because, in a meta move by the V&A, the individual shops (listed here) will be available to buy at the V&A gift shop. They range in price from £95 to £6,000.

Barnaby Barford's 'The Tower of Babel' installed in the V&A's Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Barnaby Barford's 'The Tower of Babel' installed in the V&A's Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Barnaby Barford's 'The Tower of Babel' installed in the V&A's Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Barnaby Barford 'The Tower of Babel' bone china buildings (c) Barnaby Barford

The Tower of Babel is on display now until 1 November in the V&A's Medieval & Renaissance Galleries. Click here for more info.

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