MOSAIC HOUSE

 

The Mosaic House

    Tucked away in Fairlawn Grove, Chiswick, The Mosaic House, is the extraordinary home of mosaic artist and activist Carrie Reichardt - a project over twenty years in the making.
    Almost every inch of the building is covered in intricate mosaics created by leading artists from around the world. It's not a museum and isn't  open to visitors but the exterior alone offers a powerful, thought-provoking experience (don't miss the rear in Cunnington Street).
    Carrie uses her home to confront the realities of the US prison system - where nearly two million people are incarcerated, accounting for around 20% of the world’s prisoners despite the country having just 5% of the global population. Her work highlights everything from the death penalty to wrongful convictions, exposing a system built on scale, inequality, and extreme sentencing.

“The Revolution will be Ceramicised.”

"Mad in England" is Carrie Reichardt's trademark.

      The Treatment Rooms is the name of the community artist collective based here.

      As a leading member of the art collective English Hedonists, Carrie has been responsible for most of the spoof blue plaques found around London - like this one in Islington spotted by my friend Alec ...

     So, who was "the best" whore in the city? Well, Nell Gwynn was plying her trade at the same time as Priss Fotheringham (1615-1668).

     Jill Richards was Carrie's mother, who also lived in this house. Herman Wallace was one of the Angola Three - American prisoners with whom Carrie communicated with for many years. Wallace was eventually released in 2013 but died of cancer two days later. More about this later.

      A Celtic Vine mosaiked by Eoghan Ebrill runs between the two windows. It is based on a Celtic scabbard design dating from around 2,500 years ago.

     Flanking the windows run two pieces by Karen Francesca representing double DNA helices. Hidden symbols in the helices include Celtic Sheela Na Gig figures - said to ward off evil spirits - depicting female figures exaggerated vulvas...

 

     

     On either side of the front of the house are two Cheshire Cats from Alice in Wonderland. The left-hand cat is by Tamara Froud, a mosaic artist from, er, Catford. It complements the one on the right, completed by Carrie some years earlier and quite difficult to spot - almost invisible apart from the grin, much like Lewis Carroll's original.

The Caterpillar, seated on a mushroom smoking a hookhah, is another nod to Lewis Carroll.

     There's a pair of Mandrakes, the lady looking very innocent - whilst the man pleasures himself behind a plant. 

 

Bibles, Bombs and Big Macs - Love the USA.

    Sian Wonnish's Clouds of Consciousness depicts Suffragettes, Black Panthers and Mexican revolutionaries - 'people who fought for human rights and need to be remembered'.

 

      A huge scarab beetle surrounds the top middle window, created by Chilean artist Isidora Paz Lopez.  

     Two Mayan Gods flank the front door which is also surrounded by Indian tapestries and Adinkra symbols from West Africa.

     The one-eyed Mickey Mouse is tucked away directly above the front doorway while an upside-down all-seeing eye is recognisable as the one on the back of an American one dollar bill.

 

     Easily missed are the couple kissing on the left hand side wall. But you can't miss the Spacebugs by French mosaic artist Philippe Vignal. 

 

      The bright orange Tiki Love Truck was originally exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2014. It commemorates John Joe 'Ash' Amador who was sentenced to death for robbery and the shooting of a taxi driver. He was executed in 2007 by lethal injection after spending 13 years on death row.

     The black taxi is a tribute to Black Panther Kenny 'Zulu' Whitmore who spent over 36 years in solitary confinement. He was released in 2011 after his conviction for a prison guard's death was  overturned.

And so to the rear of the Mosaic House (in Cunnington Street)...

      The first death row prisoner Carrie communicated with was Luis Ramirez who was convicted of  arranging the killing of a man romantically linked with his ex-wife. Ramirez maintained his innocence until his execution in 2005 after six years on death row. The hit man received a life sentence, likely after agreeing to testify against Ramirez. 

      Set in resin on the back wall is Luis's prisoner ID card, which he somehow managed to send to Carrie.

      There are currently around 2,000 prisoners on death row in the United States.

Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King

    The Angola Three spent decades in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Angola Prison). Members of the Black Panther movement, they became symbols of racial injustice and human rights abuses in the United States legal system. All three were eventually released after over 40 years behind bars.

     Wallace, Woodfox and King are also referenced by the three figures on the garage door to the left -  unmistakably the work of street artist Stik.

Carrie's hallmark flying eyeball is a another tribute to Kenny 'Zulu' Whitmore.

     Carrie's mosaic of Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa shows London landmarks being washed  away. "I have always been paranoid that one day my house will be under water due to rising sea levels", she explained.

 

     The giant woman with eight arms sitting on a lotus leaf is based on Marici, a Buddhist goddess of light and the sun. A black panther on her belly references the civil rights struggle.

      Magic mushrooms emerge from the lotus - Carrie has admitted that much of the house was designed under the influence of drugs.

      The pyramids topping the back wall depict the phases of the moon. They were cast from Ferrero Rocher boxes.

     Before the mosaics, this wall was covered in wildstyle graffiti, a high-complexity form of lettering. When the local council wanted to paint over it, Carrie removed the lettering herself and replace it with similar ceramic graffiti that couldn't be painted over. It remains, as background to the octopus - one of the few pieces without a backstory. 

     This fish, however does have one. It was included for Carrie's kids, big Simpsons fans. There's another at the front hidden in one of the DNA helices.

Appendix

Top 20 countries by incarceration rate (per 100,000 people)

 1. El Salvador ~1,086
 2. Cuba ~790
 3. Rwanda ~630
 4. Turkmenistan ~570

 5. American Samoa ~530 (territory, often included in rankings)
 6. United States ~530
 7. Tonga ~510
 8. Panama ~500
 9. Uruguay ~420
10. Brazil ~390

    The United States remains the highest among large, wealthy countries by a wide margin. 

    The primary driver behind these figures is not crime rates but policy choices. People tend to serve much longer sentences in the US than in Europe, with life sentences far more common. Even those sentenced to death typically remain on death row for over a decade before execution. Also, many people are jailed before trail because they can't afford bail. 

     In contrast, countries like Sweden (~80–95 per 100,000) rarely jail people pre-trial, focus more on rehabilitation and have lower incarceration levels for minor offences.

     Albert Woodfox and Robert King visiting the Mosaic House after their release from prison. Photo courtesy Carrie Reichardt.