‘I Miss You’, Zatorski + Zatorski
We commissioned Zatorski + Zatorski for a temporary site specific installation, part of the annual exhibition programme at Marks & Spencer Head Office in Baker Street. Zatorski + Zatorski produced a wall-based text installation to examine themes of transitoriness and transience during a period of change that connected with the re-structuring of Marks & Spencer’s business.
Both graduates of Scottish art schools, Zatorski + Zatorski are collaborative artists working in the areas of video/ film, installation, sculpture, performance, photography and drawing. They have exhibited widely, abroad and in the UK, including Tate Britain, Royal Academy, Whitechapel Gallery and the National Gallery of Scotland.
‘I Miss You’ was exhibited in 2001 and was part of the Marks & Spencer Head Office Cultural Programme, 1993-2004.
‘Translating Spaces’, Anne Harild
‘Translating Spaces’ was a project with inhabitants from Drapers City Foyer in Bethnal Green, East London. Drapers City Foyer is a place that offers supported accommodation for young Londoners aged 15-23, who need the support to enable them to get their lives back on track and move on to independent living.
The aim of the project was to explore the place where the young people live and take the building as a starting point for a visual journey. Using animation and photography, the participants investigated the Drapers building, exploring its visual language and the individuals’ identity within this place. They used materials and form they found there as building blocks and translated this information into new works of art or versions of this environment, exploring ideas related to place and ideas of living and dwelling in contemporary Britain.
One of the main ideas they explored during the project, was the idea of ‘translation’, not in the traditional sense where one language is translated into another, but rather in an intuitive process led manner where they let the physical environment direct their ideas and where the works became curious and investigative visual translations of the environment, making visible otherwise overlooked qualities of this place.
Suggestion was also something which the participants explored in many variations, looking at how an almost abstract form can suggest the idea of shelter as well as being just a collection of lines. They worked with drawing in many different experimental ways, drawing with line three-dimensionally in space as well as drawing with water on a large scale within the environment. Drawing was also the basis for most of the films as they used it as a way to document and investigate the place, these drawings became the foundation and the raw material for the works.
Thinking through making, directed most of the works and the participants let the materials form their ideas, responding in an open way. This process-led investigation was essential for all the works as they became documents of a process, capturing the creation of an artwork over time. Time was important and seems an essential subject for all the participants who are living in temporary accommodation for an unknown duration. Working with animation, all the works are time based but they also explored this idea consciously, letting the works document and capture a process and a series of artistic decisions made over a period of time.
‘Translating Spaces’ was commissioned by HS Projects and funded by the Insight Community Arts Programme (2002 – 2015).
The project ran from January to June 2014.
Cable & Wireless Exhibition Programme
Over a period of 14 years, HS Projects curated a bi-annual programme of exhibitions, as part of the Cable & Wireless Head Office Exhibition Programme, 1992 – 2006, showcasing work by established and emerging artists as well as recent graduates. A diverse range of media including painting, photography, print making, installation, drawing and new media, with many of the works especially commissioned for the Cable & Wireless space making a connection to the business of Cable & Wireless, a telecommunications company.
Exhibition themes ranged from decision-making theories, impact of past technologies, challenges of new technologies, the process of change, communication and messaging as well as corporate identity and perception. Many of the themes rose from discussion with Cable & Wireless as part of an initiative to engage with employees and drive debate and discussion within the office context.
Some of the 155 artists exhibited include Alan Brooks, Brad Lochore, Carey Young, Chris Wainwright, Cullinan Richards, Dominic Lewis, Emily Watson, Jenny Chong, John Stathatos, Magali Fowler and Nicolai Skylum Bendix Larsen.