Broadgate Art Trail

The Broadgate Art Trail are a collection of artworks from the vaults of Broadgate that form a route in and around the Broadgate area. The artworks are all available for view with some “hidden gems” (the ones indoors) require authorisation from the Broadgate team for photographic purposes or through the Broadgate Art Trail tour which is done during the Open House weekend.

1. Rush Hour - George Segal

2. Finsbury Avenue Lit Floor - SOM and Maurice Brill Lighting Design
It is seen in the dark so best to venture to it in the dark night to see the full effects of the 100,000 energy efficient LED lights as they strike up 10 different displays. Each display lasts as long as it takes for someone to cross the square. The installation won the International Association of Lighting Designers’ Award of Excellence in 2004.

3. Bellerophon Taming Pegasus - Jacques Lipchitz

4. Fulcrum - Richard Serra
Like Marmite, the Fulcrum is an installation that people will either love or either hate. There are 5 sheets of Cor-Ten steel used to provide an illusion that they support and slightly overlap each other. There are three entrances which encourages passerby to enter and look up through the 55 feet high structure as they see the opening giving a view of the sky.

5. Leaping Hare on Crescent and Bell (1988) - Barry Flanagan
The hare is a recurring theme in Flanagan’s works and often take on different human forms such as dancing or juggling. This artwork shows the Hare as it leaps high above the air rising above a crescent moon and a huge bell underneath. This is part of a series of talking statues.

6. Alchemy - Lincoln Seligman

7.  Venus - Jim Dine

8. Mechanics Institute - William Tillyer
This abstract painting of landscape brings out the different colours of architecture, coloud, sky and foliage. Tillyer was inspired by artists coming forward to Broadgate to create this piece to compare the solidarity of architecture to the fluidity of nature.

9. Eye-I - Bruce McLean
This steel sculpture paints a abstract face as she gives a wink and blows a kiss with her blond hair to the side. She performs against a backdrop the hustle and bustle of City workers, architectural buildings and the sky. 

10. Colour Eclipse - Danny Lane

11. Ceramic Sculpture - Joan Grady Artigas
The artwork reflects the scenic beauty of the water-like features of the sky as it surrounds the red, black and white base represented as rocks reflecting the buildings of Broadgate. Reminiscent of Catalan, the ceramics were painted by hand and placed together making a structure several stories high collectively.

12. Broadgate Venus - Fernando Botero
The Broadgate Venus is the much loved sculpture of Exchange Square with a lot of passer-by taking snaps with the large and curvaceous nude sculpture. She provides romance in the air as she reclines and gazes across the square and Liverpool Street Station.

13. Water Feature - SOM and Stephen Cox
This Japanese inspired water feature can be found in the piazza of Exchange Square where anyone can enjoy a sit down next to and admire the visual beauty and the trickles of running water as it cascades down wondrously. 

15. For George’s Sake - Marta Rogoyska
Striking, bold and colourful, this piece adds a pop burst against the grey-stoned walls. Originally, the 8-metre artwork was created for a nursery of a country house, which the artwork plays on the fun and playfulness to release the child in all of us.

16. The Broad Family - Xavier Coberó
Corberó’s installation The Broad Family sparks off different forms of human emotion in juxtapositions such as togetherness and separation to innocence and experience. From afar, it may appear that they are huge lug of rocks put together but on closer inspection they can form individual figures and an object. In the installation, you can make out the father, mother, child (with shoes poking out), a dog and a ball. There is space between each figure showing that giving space to each other is at times very welcoming.

 

17. Ganapathi & Devin - Stephen Cox
Standing in their own distinct space, yet linked together, are two pieces Ganapathi and Devi. They were named after Hindi elephant god Ganesha and Hindu Goddess Devi. The pieces hark back to periods of history and ancient civilisation. 

 

#BroadgateArtTrail

Tech Talk: Windows 8.1 - Start Bar

The Start bar gives access to a list of open applications giving quick access to opening it up or placing them side-by-side. It also allows quick access between the Start Screen and the most recently used app.

Similar to the Charms bar, it can be accessed in two ways:

• Touch-screen: From the left side of the touch-screen, swipe and hold the last app used and bring it to the left again. 
• Mouse: Go to the corner of the left side of the screen, and depending on where your mouse cursor is, swipe down or up with the cursor.

Once the app is brought up, it can be snapped to the side of another opened application. The open apps can be cycled through by pressing Alt and Tab buttons on the keyboard.

David Batchelor - Chromorama

David Batchelor's sculpture is situated at Sun Street Square which features a totem of 35 light boxes that shines bright with a spectrum of colours. The colours are placed as a pattern as they rotate it's way to the top of the installation. It has to be viewed both in the day and the night to fully marvel at the textures that the environment feeds with the artwork.

The artwork employs recycled materials found in everyday objects and industrial materials, exploring the interaction we have with colours with the modern age of technology. This is placed by office buildings adding to that full feel to the artwork of industrial, working environment.

 

Another David Batchelor art installation can be viewed at More London with his Evergreen artwork reflected between nature and office buildings.

Star Log Entry 5: 5 years on at Oxfam Bookshop... scrapbook

At a time when I was ever on the tills at the bookshop, I'd find ways to keep myself entertained as we were not to leave the tills unless someone else takes over. There was a customer request book which no one ever used, so I started to start my own doodle/scrap book. I made sure to hide it away for my own creative emergencies so no one would catch wind of it, but it was inevitable that someone would find it and somehow everyone linked me to it as you will see. I eventually stopped doodling going into 2012 and took the book home as people kept taking bites out of the pages.

This was a quick drawing to May who did not know about Doctor Who's greatest foe the Daleks. My good friend Lesley stuck it in to the scrap book.

Random doodles



Having a Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights moment and was drawn after the previous one.

More random doodles

I believe it was cloudy the day I was drawing this.

One of the volunteers Rob drew this and I thought it was pretty cool.

A drawing of a witch in a storm

Found a orange colouring pencil at the till so draw this up.

Unicorn!!!

Resting in serene grace.

Oxfam logo!

Top bit was drawn by Macy who somehow found out the doodles were done by me. She drew this up when I got my a new job offer!

I happen to find this note out of the blue and was surprised that Holy found out about my doodle book!

Done over a period of three days which I was very proud of.

Lights of Soho - Feature Series (Spotlight)

Soho has been synonymous with neon lights by Chris Bracey with his pieces making it across the sex establishments in the area. It was only fitting that a gallery opened featuring works that moths will find appealing as well that is the Light of Soho! I popped down to see their Spotlight exhibition which ends on April 2016.

Heading down during the day will give access to the member's lounge and installation in the window display is just as impressive as it is during the night. It's not hard to miss when walking down Brewer Street as you are hit with the wondrous colours of Neon Dog by Deepa Man-Kler, which was also featured in Lumiere London 2016, and comes complete with neon bones and poo.

The exhibition also features the works of M3 (Matt Mackman) and Illuminati Neon, who bring their own unique styling to their neon pieces.

Neon Dog - Deepa Mann-Kler

England's Dreaming - Illuminati Neon

Holidays in the Sun -

Ever Fallen in Love - Illuminati Neon

Tech Talk: What-Dog.net

From the minds of Microsoft's Project Oxford behind HowOld.Net and TwinsOrNot.net brings What-Dog.net. Utilising artificial intelligence powered by new machine learning technology, the application enables identification of objects to project an image that resembles the closest to a breed of dog.

There are laughs to be had when playing about with this app as it distinguishes what breed it is that your dog or yourself would be. It may not come up with the desired result and pictures of one person can yield different results, so there is a in-built feedback feature where people can submit the photos that they used in the application to help improve it. Not only does the breed come up, it'll also come up with the personalities.

First up is Ed the Golden Retriever:

First pic of me comes up with the German Shepherd Dog:

With a slight variation comes up with Labrador Retriever:

Don't have a dog, so we have... Silver the cat:

Give it a spin yourself and see how it goes with friends, family and yourself at What-Dog.net or download the Fetch! app on iOS, which is developed by Microsoft Garage.

#whatDogRobot

Fiona Banner - Full Stop

Fiona Banner’s Full Stop are positioned at different points on the grounds of More London Estates providing different backdrops with many of an opportunity for a passerby to stop at gaze into it. It is a lens reflecting and warping the image it reflects on its solid yet fluid surface. 

The full stop placements were done with test installations with full scale polystyrene models to determine how the full stop plays on with its environment.

Each Full Stop is an enlarged 3D image of a full stop in different typefaces. The titles of the sculptures are Slipstream, Optical, Courier, Klang and Nuptail. They sculptures are cast in bronze and coated in a shiny black paint as the same used for London Taxis which gives it that reflective surface.Each were made with plaster to help shape the texture and movement of the shapes, which were then cast in bronze.

 

Star Log Entry 4: 5 years on at Oxfam Bookshop... first day

It's been 5 years since I stepped foot in Oxfam Bookshop in Bloomsbury for my first day of volunteering and it sometimes does feel like a surreal experience. There's been so many things that I have experienced during my journey at the bookshop from being challenged to read all the Terry Pratchett's Discworld series up to the 2011 within a year to creating 1000 cranes to finding my first job. There has been nothing compared to the life-long friends with the volunteers and customers who've touched me with their compassion and love, and this came on my first day when I met a group of unique individuals that became family instantly.

On Sunday 3rd April 2016, I stood outside the bookshop waiting for the bookshop to open up. Ruesharn, a gentleman (ahem!) with fine taste in clothing with a distinct class glasses, came running up and opened up the store. Gradually the volunteers, Yili and Donna, started to come in and their personalities started to flood in as well.

Ruesharn was like the leader of the pack and had worldly views in a myriad of topics. Yili was silent but deadly with her business and economic finesse, and an eye for detail in photography. Donna was the visionary and she always gave 110% in what she does. Lesley, who I sadly lost in touch with, actually started on the day before and was forthright in the way she does things.

They all helped me on the go-get in showing me carry out different tasks. Even though I did very little during the day, it was tiring and very rewarding work. Ruesharn, Yili and Donna are people I hold dearly as they have helped me through so much through the past years during good times and bad times. They are friends that I can rely on as they have my back, and that is why I will do anything in the world for them if they asked.

Do you have any friends that you consider family?

King's Cross Poetry Trail

The King’s Cross’ poetry trail features children’s poets that are derived and form a celebration of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education CLPE Poetry Award back in 2014. It is brought together with the King’s Cross Limited Partnership and the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.

"We don’t want children to be frightened of poetry, we want them to be given it as an everyday part of their lives and having the poetry trail in such a prominent place and the poems displayed so beautifully gives a high profile to this really important aspect of children’s literature. In Kings Cross we have been lucky enough to be able to display a real range of the best children’s poetry available in an accessible and exciting way, which is exactly the purpose of the CLPE Poetry Award." - Roger McGough, Chair of the judges for the Poetry Award 2014

In total there are 12 poems that form a treasure hunt around the King’s Cross area. Some of which have been moved about due to the development of the area. Originally, the trail had 11 clues which allow the children to decipher allowing them to navigate between each poem.

"King’s Cross is enjoyed by lots of children already, including the ones living in the new homes here; from September next year a new Academy will open, bringing primary school kids together with the relocated Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children. We hope they will enjoy the poetry trail as part of the gardens and public spaces here at King’s Cross." - Robert Evans, Argent

"The aim of the award is to make good children’s poetry books known to a wider audience and to make poetry central to literacy teaching. The Kings Cross Partnership have helped us to show the shortlisted poetry in an engaging, exciting and really high profile way. We are delighted with the experience the trail provides for children, parents and teachers. It makes poetry relevant and fun." - Louise Johns-Shepherd, CEO of CLPE

Trees Are Great - Roger McGough

 Sshhhhh! - Julia Donaldson

 The Teacher Tells us How to Play at Playtime - Joanne Limburg

 Steel birds - Kathy Henderson

 The Brill - Aidan Dun *

 The Day We Went to the Multi-Skills Festival - Joanne Limburg

 Wayland: The Tale of the Smith from the Far North - Tony Mitton

 The Dragon with a Big Nose - Kathy Henderson

 Miss Spring - Grace Nichols

 The Lake's Bottom - George Szirtes

 Voices of Water - Tony Mitton

 Sonnet to an Earthworm - Grace Nichols



Aidan Dun's poem The Brill reads:

Kings Cross, dense with angels and histories. There are cities beneath your pavements. Cities behind your skies. Let me see!

#foundit