Participatory Artworks
To Love or Not to Love – for a homeless drop in centre in Deptford, 2009
We worked with a group of homeless people to come
up with ideas for a mural that would brighten up the
space next to the vegetable patch. We had many interesting
entries and we went with this one in the end, which has an
uplifting graphic and playful approach. Its image is inspired
in the pearly cake decorations and the question of seeing or not seeing.
Funded by: Healthy Living Trust.
PEPYS Motor - in collaboration with youth at risk from Pepys Estate, 2009
To entice disenfranchised youth into our project, we devised
a method of voting and lobbing for ideas which got them going.
The method of making the image was an interesting journey too. We took
a snap of the wall, then created a digital pattern of the bricks,
then wrapped a miniature car and doll with a shrunk print, and then
photographed them. Lastly we colour-matched the wall again and blew
up the print to larger than life.
Funded by: Lewisham Homes
Kennington Kids: Raw Urban, 2008
Dulwich Picture Gallery Community Outreach Program asked us to engage with youth from Alford House drop-in centre. The problem is, they said, they are actually not interested in art! So what are they actually interested in? Football, ping-pong and eating crisps. We then decided to make art on those themes combining, creative destruction of the gallery's glossy catalogue with resurfacing their footballs and table-tennis bats. We then made a connection between the kids' pleasure of posing for the camera and the historical theme of posing for the painter.
Fabric of Society, 2007
We appointed ourselves to replace a tired mural on top of Telegraph Hill, South East London. We came up with the idea of asking people to show us the fabric they are most attached to and tell us why. This was a way they could participate with a choice that let through a glimpse of who they were. We photographed the fabric on a fold and created a digital composite mixing carefully pattern, colours and stories. This is our first large-scale digital mural.
Hands Hoarding, 2005
We got a request from New Cross Gate NDC (a government organisation trying to improve the fortunes of people in the area) to come up with an idea for turning a hoarding of a construction site from wild, violent and mean into a beautiful place. We came up with the idea of photographing peoples' hands in theatrical positions to humanise the space and introduce a playing ingredient.