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“The gallery at Leth & Gori studio was once a bakery and still retains its large windows and glass door making it a perfect canvas for the second part of my contribution. The brief was to paint on the windows the title of the exhibition Ingredients & Cakes and the names of the four projects on show. I took inspiration from the old metalwork shop signs and the Ricardo Flores & Eva Prats office rubber stamp that I designed for them about 10 years ago. In Denmark the traditional symbol for a bakery is a pretzel suspended under a crown. I mocked up the window design at full scale in the hallway of my home. It was the only place I could find enough wall space. I painted the rubber stamp inspired triangle areas and all the text onto tracing paper. For the crowns and the curves of the metalwork I made stencils. I then took all these paper patterns, powder paints, and gold leaf for the crowns out to Copenhagen. I spent five long days working in the window. It was like a performance piece as I went up and down the ladder or lay on my belly painting in awkward corners and positions. Obviously the glass had to be clean, but to make it more complicated some grease was required to make the paint adhere, but for the gilded crowns there needed to be absolutely no grease.”

Soraya Smithson.