Concept: Be More Together
In the spirit of artistic collaboration, we asked local creatives – each making waves in their individual fields – to design pieces for our latest Canary Wharf space. We got them to choose their favourite space within the building and create something in response to it. They chose nooks, crannies, walls, floors and ceilings, and decked them with colour, texture and soul.
Their brief was to embody an emotion; the kind you might feel when going to a new place or arriving at a crossroads. The kind that might give you some spiritual comfort or push you to notice your deepest desires. We urged them to provoke that emotion in their audience; through a satisfying sense of ritual.
Like the regular visitor of a temple or wishing well, our members arrive with their own hopes, desires, thoughts and feelings. Some of the pieces invite visitors to add to them, to interact with them, making them more. Because at The Collective we believe in more, in being more, together.
Curious about our spaces? Book yourself in for a tour or simply pop in for a nibble at our lobby cafe or 20th floor restaurant & bar.
Mark Griffiths
Dreams
The Lobby
In response to the smooth, shiny newness of Canary Wharf, conceptual artist Mark has created a rock-like, organic shape - with plenty of depth and texture. And within this large sculpture? A 19th century bell. Inviting a ritualistic ring upon departure or arrival, the bell marks the boundary between the outside world and the warmth of The Collective.
The bell seen above, within Mark Griffiths’ sculpture, was originally cast in 1866 over in Whitechapel at the Mears and Stainbank bell foundry (now the Whitechapel Bell Foundry). Eight years before that, this very same foundry cast the bell still ringing every hour, on the hour, in Big Ben today. After travelling all the way to a school in Somerset, this bell has been carefully restored and given a new home, only 3 miles from where it was first made.
Jess Warby
Gut Instinct
(pen, paint, wool) The M.A.E Cafe, and first floor
Illustrator Jess has long used machine embroidery and art therapy for escape, creating pieces filled with depth and tangible emotion. Her sketches, collages and tapestries put a rollercoaster of feelings into quirky shapes and vivid colour: all the sadness, anticipation and joy of listening to her gut. Get up close and personal with the art; and give yourself time to feel.
Warren Lewis
Free of Charge
(paint & mixed media on canvas) The Playroom, The Laundry, Corridors
According to Warren, you can’t bottle up your feelings; at some point, they’ve got to break free and pour out for everyone to see. Using multiple layers of textured paint and heavily laboured canvases, he expresses the intense, complex emotions we all feel while moving through life. The art, just like our emotions can't be contained. Instead, scribbled lines cross the threshold onto the walls while multicoloured paints drip to the floor - free of their traditional borders.
(pen & pencil on walls) The Playroom, The Laundry, Corridors
Conceptual artist Warren has a real playful side. He's released his inner teen and graffitied all over the walls and floor of the laundry, corridor and playroom. Decipher his mischievous doodles; get lost in the wordplay, hop through a hopscotch of your likes and dislikes; or daringly draw swords with a worthy opponent - Warren wants you to think, laugh and maybe even flirt a little.
Nicky Pasterfield
Green Gold
(watercolour) The Gallery, The Library
Painter and printmaker, Nicky brings subtle and dainty watercolour with contemporary aesthetics. Green Gold honours all those little bits of life that spring up in urban environments. Exotic and native species crawl about our streets, fly in through our windows, filter our air, and calm our souls. After foraging flora and fauna from within a 1-mile radius of her home and workplace, Nicky carefully archived, pressed and painted her findings. The result? A Darwinesque cabinet of curiosities: because plants are more valuable to the human race than gold.
Jade Chorkularb
Everlasting Love
(wire, LED strips) Ground Floor Corridor
Created by sculptor Jade, everlasting Love is a collection of three convoluted wire pieces entwined with coloured LED strips. Each one represents a different take on love: selfless love, the love of friendship and passionate love. Here Jade wants you to get stuck in by attaching a padlock to the love that resonates with you the most. Choose wisely.
DUKKHA
(Wire, LED strips) Basement Lift Lobby
Through her sculptural works, Jade investigates feelings of love and loneliness. Made up of a series of cages, threaded with LED strips, Dukkha explores the effects of feeling trapped in both mind and spirit. The light pours through the cage, like abstracted waves reflecting the ups and downs felt by our brains.
MOHA
(paper) 20th Floor Lift Lobby & Corridors
Inspired by her Buddhist beliefs, Jade examines spirituality through sculpture. ‘MOHA’ is a large-scale installation made from white paper, a traditional symbol of purity in Buddhism. On the reverse side it is scorched by candle flames creating soft, ethereal patterns that draw you in. She invites you to look up whilst following this piece along the corridor, hinting at the possibility of a higher wisdom.
Yasuyo Harvey
Between the Leaves
(Botanicals) Bar/Restaurant, 20th Floor
With her sculpture, Yasuyo plays with intervals of time and space. Much like a mummification, she has carefully applied latex to delicate, dried botanicals, preserving the moment of decay. Amongst various greenery, tree branches and vines, sit skeleton leaves of the bodhi tree; the tree under which Gautama Buddha famously attained enlightenment. Yasuyo creates soft ethereal spaces between these leaves, conscious empty spaces called ‘ma’ in Japanese, a hint at the spiritual possibilities within.