STREETLIGHT 2009
15 October to 15
November
Shop-fronts and windows across North
Kensington will be lit up with glowing artworks and projections
celebrating cultural heritage and community during October and
November. The artworks will form an iridescent trail along
Portobello Road, under the Westway flyover and up to Golborne Road.
Details appear below, or you can download a copy of the map here:
Streetlight 2009 [PDF]
How the artists and designers explain their creations:
Paul Vivian
Shell
"The work reflects the dynamic nature of
Portobello Road and the sense of the hidden and overlooked. This
piece provides a new perspective by collecting discarded
material and recording its location as a basis for constructing
images within the objects themselves. These objects will then
become a collection of magic-lanterns to be viewed
through the stores main window."
Rebecca Foster
"My current artistic practice involves the
appropriation of pre-existing and original images. The piece
created for STREETLIGHT takes locally found and bought objects and
combines them into a sculptural form. Through the use of light the
sculpture is transformed into a shadow image which celebrates a
specific aspect of the multi-cultural history of the Notting Hill
area."
Sigune Hamann
Waving
"I am interested in the compassionate and
seemingly timeless global gesture of non-verbal communication.
Installed in this hybrid transitional crossing of pedestrian, car
and train journeys the gesture will connect with passers-by, evoke
memories and stimulate thoughts about our relationship with
strangers. Waving is often a positive and sympathetic gesture
and when placed in a public space installation it might stimulate
empathy."
Rob Pyecroft-Rainbow
Revisitor
"Revisitor is an interactive
installation, which incorporates video projection and sensor
technology. The installation interacts through movement and
explores aspects of random storytelling using a variety of
different narrative threads.
The work explores a sense of place at street
level and also touches on local history.
The installation explores both the body and
city, touching on issues of identity, consumption and zones of
space: intimate, personal, social, or public."
Julie Goldsmith
"A group of urban fairy-like creatures
magically inhabit a shop front in the heart of Portobello Market -
a secret world.
I regularly scour the neighbourhood for
treasures and materials that I use in my work: Portobello market;
modern Gothic spaces under the Westway; the wilderness of foxes and
birds, wild flowers and graffiti art; and, the Great Western
Railway and the Grand union canal. This landscape is where my
carved figures and creatures are first imagined, glinting in the
shadows.
For this piece I have taken inspiration from
the writer Wilkie Collins (now buried in Kensal cemetery), who
walked the Notting Hill and Kensal streets with Charles Dickens at
the turn of the 20th century."
Joanna Salter
"Sculpted teacups hang together in a magical
constellation. Made from wire and thin material and illuminated
from the inside they explore nostalgia and the commonplace, a
metaphor for ritual, tradition and the universal. They are devoid
of function and detail but their familiar form seeks to emphasise
the role inanimate objects play in our lives."
Paul Allcock
The Thin Blue Line
"I've always been fascinated by monoliths and standing stones. They
have rarely failed to impress me. So when I get the opportunity I
like to have a go at creating
one, albeit mostly in a very minimal sense and usually it is a
little tongue in cheek.
The Thin Blue Line in essence is a very thin
monolith.
Beyond its original inspiration, The Thin Blue Line
represents the law (colloquially). The law and laws as they
stand have often had the power to divide communities down the
middle physically and ideologically, much like the The Thin
Blue Line divides the space."
Lisa Nash
Unsecured Landscapes
Having originally trained as a dancer, a lot
of Lisa Nash’s work resides around the exploration of movement and
repetition, included in this is the performance of the
everyday.
For Unsecured Landscapes, Lisa was interested
in capturing the beauty and mesmerising qualities of traditional
Islamic dress, namely the Abaya and Hijab.
She has worked closely with groups of local
Muslim women and through discussion and experimentation with the
natural movement of these garments, has produced this new piece of
work.
Thank you to all the women who have
participated in this project, a special thanks to Hanan and
Ariba.
Artist led tour of the Streetlight trail - 15 October
Meeting point is Ladbroke Grove tube
station.
The tour leaves at 6pm sharp and will last
approximately ninety minutes, reaching it’s conclusion at the Fat
Badger pub.