London City Airport commissions art installation
Above:
Renowned London artist Anne Hardy is pictured collecting flora at London City Airport, from the airfield / on the water from the original dock side, to be incorporated in to her work ‘Destination London’.
Courtesy London City Airport
Anne Hardy has already begun working on her major new public art commission, Destination London, which was chosen from a shortlist of East London-based artists by a panel of local stakeholders, London City Airport and The Line’s Co-Founder and Director, Megan Piper.
Destination London is a sequence of six large photograms, made with a cameraless technique. It features images created from the flora found at London City Airport, on the airfield and from the original dock side, as well as the wild spaces of Bow Creek and the exotic species to be found in nearby urban gardens and allotments - encapsulating the long history of London as a place of travel, trade and movement through the plants which have made their way here over thousands of years. It will be unveiled to the public this summer and will be situated in the International Arrivals corridor at London City Airport where it will welcome millions of visitors to London each year.
Anne Hardy is internationally recognised for her large-scale sculptural installations: immersive, sensual works that combine physical materials with lighting and surround sound. These works derive from places she calls ‘pockets of wild space’ – gaps in the urban space where materials, atmospheres and emotions gather. Hardy brings this approach to her commission for London City Airport, seeking out the overlooked and diverse botanical material in the surrounding urban space, and drawing on the specific atmosphere of this post-industrial landscape at the edge of Thames to create a series of large scale photograms. Anne Hardy was recently commissioned by Tate Britain, London to create ‘The Depth of Darkness, the Return of the Light’ for their annual Winter Commission (2019/20).
Destination London is also part of an expanded programme, presented by The Line, East London’s public art walk running between the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and The O2.
