BBC extends its public art programme

As part of a new public art programme for BBC Broadcasting House, permanent and temporary artworks by established and emerging artists from Britain and abroad have been commissioned for display in the building and elsewhere.

The commissions, managed by Modus Operandi art consultancy, include a Rachel Whiteread cast of Room 101 (pictured below), the number George Orwell adopted for the torture chamber in his distopian novel 1984. Orwell had occupied a room 101 at Broadcasting House when he was a wartime employee of the BBC and the sculpture was commissioned in his centenary year before the room was demolished. Public art is at the heart of the building project, currently being redeveloped by architects MacCormac Jamieson Prichard who are using artists to contribute to the design of lighting, public space, sound and colour. A piece by Fiona Rae (pictured above) is currently displayed on the prow of the building. Untitled (Room 101) is now showing in the V&A Cast Courts.