Middlesex Street Area Improvements
Project Background
Petticoat Lane is the name of the famous East End market, running along mainly Middlesex Street and Wentworth Street. The street offers fashion, bric-a-brac, luggage, souvenirs, hairdressers, cafés and hot food. Many businesses are independent family-run; the street is free of chain stores. Shops and markets serve mostly local residents, budget-conscious customer base or niche business, as well as office workers from nearby areas. The pandemic has hit local businesses and market stall holders hard and has exacerbated further decline in the street as business income is reduced and some businesses are forced to close.
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Background
The Council have partnered up with the Whitechapel Gallery, London Met University and City of London to invite local artists to produce concepts for the blank wall space located on Pomell Way off Old Castle Street.
This piece will form part of a wider scale art trail that invites local artists to produce large scale art work using local themes and history of the area with the aim to help educate visitors about the deep local history of the Petticoat Lane area drive footfall back to the market and high street.
Through a selection process led by the Whitechapel Gallery; the selected Artists: Jacob V Joyce, Shannon Bono & Sola Olulode; have created three unique pieces for the wall that we are asking members of the public to select their preferred choice.
Closing date for voting is the 15th June 2022 and the most voted for artist will be announced on the 17th June 2022.
Pick Your Favourite
We'd love to get your opinion on which mural you'd like to see be placed on Pomell Way. Before continuing with this survey, please view the designs and read the descriptions below, this will help inform your answers.
You may refer to the designs by the number placed in the bottom left-hand corner.
1. “Nourishing Disruptions”
"One of the central narratives of this design is the idea that art can provide a moment of serenity that disrupts the endless construction and labour demanded by an ever-changing cityscape. The design incorporates sites of historic community action in the area, such as the Jagonari Women’s Centre, The Shaheed Minar Monument Replica in Altab Ali Park, Whitechapel Gallery itself and the Bell Foundry which local protests recently saved from developers. The Ideas Store designed by David Adjaye is also one of the buildings which tower up on either side of this composition. The muted green pastel tones of this condensed landscape are interrupted by Buddleia plants that flow from the artworks of children. The Buddleia are painted in the style of William Morris, an artist who championed the notion that art should empower us all and that making art is the embodiment of dreams.Buddleia is a plant which grows on many rooftops in Whitechapel, to me it represents a defiant nature, an ability to put down roots in hostile environments and humble beauty that can sometimes go unnoticed. Earlier in 2022 I had the privilege of working with local anti- homelessness action groups in Whitechapel and with Canon Barnett Primary school located just beside the proposed wall. This mural feels like a serendipitous opportunity to celebrate the resilience and optimism I witnessed in those communities. At the end of the workshops with anti-homelessness action groups we gave attendees seed bombs containing buddleia and other wildflowers to hide in cracks around the city, who knew they might bloom in such a powerful way".
Artist bio
Jacob V Joyce is an artist, researcher and educator from South London. Their work is community focussed ranging from mural painting, illustration, workshops, poetry and punk music with their band Screaming Toenail. Joyce has illustrated international human rights campaigns for Amnesty International and Global justice Now, had their comics published in national newspapers and self-published number of DIY zines. Their work with OPAL (Out Proud African LGBTI) has gone viral across the African Continent and increased the visibility of activists fighting the legacies of colonially instated homophobic legislation.
Joyce was recently awarded a Support Structures Fellowship from the Serpentine Gallery and a Westminster PhD research scholarship at C.R.E.A.M, (Centre for Research and Education in Art Media.) Previous recognitions include a collaborative residency at Serpentine Galleries Education Department with Rudy Loewe 2020, TFL (Transport For London) Public Arts Grant 2019, Artist Participation Residency at Gasworks London/East Yard Trinidad Tobago 2019, Tate Galleries Education Department Residency 2019, Nottingham Contemporary Community Artist Residency 2017.
Joyce is a non-binary artist amplifying historical and nourishing new queer and anti-colonial narratives.
2. “This Colour Will Look Beautiful On You”
"My design for the mural on Old Castle street was inspired by the interiors of African Print fabric shops in the local area and many of the women that run them. With the theme of Bob and Roberta Smith’s ART MAKES PEOPLE POWERFUL I wanted to create something that would make the aunties of the local area feel celebrated. My painting is of an auntie holding up a piece of cloth for the viewer as showing it to someone to choose from inside one of these shops. She is surrounded by the warm rich colours of piles of fabrics and hanging lace. Lots of blues to represent love and togetherness and greens to represent growth. She holds out a golden yellow cloth, a powerful colour signifying importance and value, it’s often used to represent wealth and beauty. Fashion has the power to make people really great about themselves. The aunties that work in these shops help people find the patterns and colours that unlock their self-confidence, the women listen to their customers' desires and pull out the most gorgeous patterns and colours to dazzle all. These shops play a huge role in connecting those of the African diaspora with their culture through textiles by ensuring they are stocked with the latest trends and classic fabrics for special occasions and everyday life. I hope the colours will brighten up the street and make people feel warm and happy as they walk. I hope the women who work in those fabric shops feel seen, represented and valued as the mural is dedicated to their contribution to fashion and community".
Artist Bio
Sola Olulode’s paintings are nuanced and tender visions of intimacy and community; her wistful images celebrations of Black identity, womxnhood and non-binary people. Distinguished by their use of gestural brushwork, indigo dye, wax, oil bar, impasto and monochromatic schemes (typically in blue, green or yellow) they speak strongly of her Nigerian heritage. Allowing the body to take centre stage, she creates utopian scenes which give prominence to movement, gesture, and romanticised acts. Reflecting her own community and experiences, her works expose a unique tenderness and a fluid ability of bringing to life representation and visibility of Black Queer lived experiences.
3. “Art Makes People Powerful”
“For this mural, I am proposing to create a design influenced by the textile culture of this community. Within my practice I consider the foundations of my paintings as starting points to share a story with the viewer, the patterns from these African fabrics consciously intertwine and feed through the dominant scenes in the foreground, purposing them with a symbolic role within the work. Focusing on the popularised Dutch wax fabrics sold on Wentworth street, I wish to bring forward the functionality of these brightly coloured, highly patterned fabrics to celebrate and uplift the community. I have incorporated the history of Tenter grounds by including images of the hooks used to stretch cloth in the final design. The silhouetted hands represent the hands of the wax sellers as well as paying homage to the hierarchical cultural status of spiritual power and societal respect women are held to in African communities.”
Artist bio
Shannon’s paintings embody an afrofemcentrist consciousness, sharing muted narratives and projecting the black women’s lived experiences. She is invested in producing layered, figurative, compositions embedded with symbols and scientific metaphors that centralise black womanhood as a source of knowledge and understanding. Enamoured by African spirituality, Christian iconography and renaissance art she employs its purpose of cultural impact, liturgy, and instruction for an improved society within her works. She views the body as a powerful signifier that provokes dialogue, playing with pose, gesture, and the gaze to challenge reality. Shannon explores the internal body as well as the external, by merging the design of notable fabrics from Africa with biological structures and chemical processes in living organisms for the backgrounds of her works and using the anatomy as a second canvas in the foreground.
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