September 19th to October 21st 2013
Various Locations
Artists will be transforming disused hoardings and derelict buildings throughout Bankside with site-specific original artworks. Artists will include Candy Chang, Alex Chinneck and Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue. Each artist will be given a space to create a piece sensitive to its environment that aims to enrich some otherwise neglected areas of Bankside.
CANDY CHANG
Title: Before I Die
Locations: Flat Iron Square, Union Street, SE1 OAB and 131 Borough High Street, SE1 1NP
For MERGE Candy Chang's Before I Die interactive installations became a strong focal point for people passing through Flat Iron Square and Borough High Street where they were encouraged to write their thoughts and ambitions on giant blackboards. To date over 150 Before I Die walls have been created in over 15 languages, in over 40 countries including; Kazakhstan, Argentina, China, Italy, Israel, Thailand, and South Africa. The project has been described as “one of the most creative community projects ever,” by The Atlantic.
THIS EVENT HAS NOW ENDED.
About:
Candy Chang is an artist, designer, and urban planner and believes our public spaces are as profound as we allow them to be. Chang combines public art with civic engagement and introspection and is celebrated for the work she has done to improve our communities and ourselves. She is a TED Senior Fellow, a Tulane Urban Innovation Fellow, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Chang has created interactive public art projects to share housing information, resources, memories and hopes for an abandoned building. She created I Wish This Was to gather residents’ ideas for vacant storefronts: an idea that further developed into Neighborland, a tool to help people share and build on ideas for the places they care about. She received a BS in Architecture, a BFA in Graphic Design, and a MA in Urban Planning from Columbia University. Once a designer at The New York Times, she has collaborated with community groups to make citizens’ rights and resources more accessible. Projects included the award-winning Street Vendor Guide in New York City, as well as projects on criminal justice, tenants’ rights, and drug rehabilitation. Her questions are turned into experiments in public space.
Other quotes include:
“Through a series of large-scale projects that combine installation art with social activism, Chang has encouraged people to engage with public spaces to let their voices be heard.” –The Oprah Magazine
“They’re the stuff of everyday life from people of all walks of life… Young or old, rich or poor, the Before I Die wall does make you think as you walk by.” – NBC with Brian Williams
“Artist Candy Chang transformed a haunting reminder of blight and divestment into a powerful affirmation of human life and imagination.” – Life and Times
Alex Chinneck
Title: Miner on the Moon
Location: 20 Blackfriars Road, SE1 8NY
For MERGE Chinneck will create a large scale site-specific work for a disused building on Blackfriars Road. The façade will be turned upside down in a celebration of the history and life of a building that is due for demolition.
This project will be ongoing through the festival with completion scheduled for the 4th December 2013.
Kindly supported by: Mace, Ibstock Brick, Euroform, EuroBrick
About:
London-based artist Alex Chinneck takes sculpturally complex routes to arrive at playful visual moments. Exploring the space between art, theatre and architecture he is inspired by the landscapes of London’s industrial peripheries. He reworks their powerful aesthetics and aims to find new and ambitious applications for everyday construction materials. The unrefined materials of basic construction are given a second life. Stones, metals and woods are manipulated, reshaped and enlivened with new purpose and appearance.
Chinneck grew up surrounded by the industrial architecture of London’s East End and finds raw beauty in solid, purpose-made buildings. His 2012 work Telling the Truth Through False Teeth drew attention to some of the socio-economic issues that arose in Hackney during the regeneration of the area for the London 2012 Olympics. The project played on the common assumption that unrepaired broken windows signify decline. All the visible windows in a factory building were replaced with identical broken sheets of glass. In total 312 panes from 13 windows were replaced with 1,248 pieces of glass and the former factory became a Hackney landmark until it was finally demolished.
Chinneck is a graduate of Chelsea College of Art & Design and is currently the Creative Director of The Sculpture House, a platform that enables emerging artists to produce innovative items of furniture.
http://www.dezeen.com/2012/07/18/telling-the-truth-through-false-teeth-by-alex-chinneck/
History of the Building:
Built in 1780, the site was originally used as livery stables, housing horses and carriages for hire. The access through the site was also used to ferry live cattle and goods from the courtyard to trade along the Thames. The building itself was used as a residential unit for families and workers.
In 1880 the ground floor shop unit changed use and was listed in the local Post Office as a Pawn Broker, while the passageway to the side was used to gain access to the Tress and Co site. From the 1800’s onwards the history of the building is a mystery. Join us to create a narrative for its final days.
Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue (New Commission)
Title: House of Pain- THIS EVENT HAS NOW ENDED.
Location: Zenith House, 135 Borough High Street, SE1 1NP
Timings: 17.00 - 01.00, Wednesdays - Sundays. Visitors interacted with the installation from 17.00 - 22.00.
Artists Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue made a site-specific light-based sculpture for MERGE in a disused building. The public were invited to have a cathartic scream inside the building. The unique qualities of their vocal outpourings would generate an instant light composition that reverberated throughout the building. Changing constantly with the quality of their voices, the public's screams would be translated into a complex play of light and shadow, visible from Borough High Street.
About:
Mark and Marcus create live events and shows for large audiences. They have worked on some of the largest concerts in the world. Their work uses film-making, animation, lighting, interaction and stagecraft to produce hard-edged theatrical experiences.
Marcus Lyall
Marcus has created experimental film and interactive projects for the last 20 years. Starting with live film shows during the heady days of rave, he moved on to specialise in making visuals for large-scale concerts. He now works on a range of moving-image projects, from stage visuals for Metallica's new feature film to directing a commercial starring Lionel Messi. He has created a number of artworks which have been exhibited at galleries including The ICA, National Gallery of Australia, Seoul Museum of Modern Art and The
Science Museum.
Mark Logue
Mark trained in Fine Art at Central St Martins. Becoming interested in digital film-making, he set up Punk Films to produce music videos, live visuals and experimental documentaries. As well as producing visuals for bands including U2 and The Rolling Stones, he has collaborated with a number of leading contemporary artists on film projects. He is also the co-author of a book about his grandfather, Lionel Logue, subject of the film 'The King's Speech'.
#houseofpainsouthwark
