Heathrow Collection
In 2015 HS Projects was invited by Heathrow Airport to re-assess and evaluate their art collection during a period of the company’s re-structuring.
In close consultation with our client, we selected a number of works originally commissioned as part of the BAA Art Programme (1994 to 1999) and earlier acquisitions that have relevance to Heathrow, its re-structured business and brand. These works formed the Heathrow Art Collection.
We curated and installed the works into their new corporate head office at The Compass Centre, Heathrow Airport. In re-siting the works, we considered the original criteria and purpose of the work in identifying sites to ensure the integrity of the work is maintained in its new location.
The Heathrow Collection includes works by Brendan Neiland, Robyn Denny, Victor Pasmore, Sandra Blow, Marcia Raff, Guy Noble, Jonathan Waller and Adrian Hemming.
‘Choose Your Character, A Documentary’, David Blandy
‘Choose Your Character: A Documentary’ celebrated a particular sub-cultural obsession, the computer fighting game, by looking at the community that surrounds this activity. What drives people to seek to find themselves in these products of global culture and what authenticity and the underground mean in the internet-driven world.
A small group of selected participants, aged 18-25, many of whom not in formal education, employment or training, were taught all the skills necessary to craft their own documentary projects, from planning, filming, recording sound, and editing to publicity and the final presentation.
‘Choose Your Character: A Documentary’ built on David Blandy’s ongoing research into identity and its relationship to consumer and underground culture, highlighting the slippage and tension between fantasy and reality in everyday life.
The participants concentrated on making a video self-portrait, using their games-playing as a central motif. The films that were produced were edited in a series of group workshops, to form a film that creates a picture of a community through intimate portraits of individuals. For the final filming session all the participants converged for an evening of competitive games playing.
This project transformed the participants’ outlook on their lives. It showed them that not only are their lives and passions worthwhile, but that through dedication and hard work, change in the real world and in their daily lives, is achievable.
‘Choose Your Character, A Documentary’ was commissioned by HS Projects and funded by the Insight Community Arts Programme (2002 – 2015).
The project ran from April to September 2012.
David Adamo at Moorgate
HS Projects presented a site-specific exhibition of sculptural works by David Adamo in the lobby of Finsbury Circus House, in partnership with Ibid Gallery, London.
This is the first exhibition at Finsbury Circus House in Moorgate, London, part of a biannual exhibition programme that is aimed to engage, stimulate, and create dialogue in a multi-tenanted and much frequented building in the city of London. Finsbury Circus House is open to the public and is located between a Catholic church, with a historical connection to the building, and a tree lined square.
This project consists of four unique cedar sculptures by David Adamo. Vertical wood sculptures standing like columns, with square bases and capitals, and vessel-like works, carved from red cedar beams (historically used in the making of totem poles) with an adze, a physically engaging way of working, with the resulting sculptures retaining a sense of the body at work. The space’s simplicity and strong architectural lines gives it a monumental, almost mausoleum-like quality, while the combination of Adamo’s small scale bronze work with the wooden totemic sculptures makes for an interesting dialogue with the space, juxtaposing the natural and manmade elements, the roughly carved wood sculptures, and the unexpected small scale bronze sculpture of a clementine peel.
David Adamo was at Finsbury Circus House from February to June 2017.