2026 Vaulted Exhibition, The CND Space, Holloway Rd, London.Light Installation, Reading performance, Audio composition. |
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Performance area_ |
The work originated from visits to Theberton Street, where the artist grew up from the age of 3 and
learnt to ride his bike. He was instinctively drawn to a set of pavement lights along the street. This
unearthed a latent childhood memory of a boundary -a threshold once forbidden to cross alone.
To map this memory, the artist used archival material from their father's studio-Pantone Letraset
translucent sheets to construct a model of the pavement lights.
By utilising these generically shared milestones, such as learning to ride a bike and mistaking
plane trails for rocket ships, the performance transformed a specific personal memory into an
evocative, shared space where audience members actively reconnected with forgotten memories
of their own childhoods.
This piece was installed within the vaulted architecture of the CND Space, this glowing focal point
operated alongside a live reading performance and audio compositions.
Below is the text read in the reading performance which was interwoven with audio recordings
Standing on the pavement, revisiting the outside of my childhood home for the first time in 50 years. Looking up at the sky I remembered it as a child of four when it was a deep blue when I had watched the trails of aeroplanes and thought they were rocket ships. The sixth and last manned moon landing had happened 3 years earlier, it would make sense that people would now go there all the time. Today I stood for a while on the pavement. Realising that it was the same spot I stood all those years ago I listened for an aeroplane. When I heard one it sounded as if it were rising, accelerating, wanting to leave the earth's atmosphere.
| Aeroplane |
Theberton St is the first home I can remember, the pavement outside was nicely wide and straight,
good for riding a bike. At first, I had stabilisers and I learnt how to traverse the loose paving stones.
As I remember it now, I've been thinking about the boundary at the end of the street by the shops.
How I couldn't cross it on my own. A grid of small squares, opaque glass windows set within the pavement
above a shop's basement, the pavement lights are still there unchanged.
There was something orderly in a practical sense that I liked about my dad. I think he may have made
the decision for the stabilisers to come off, although it was mum that went out with me. They were short
runs at first. It was fun, it felt free. Independent. I don't remember falling off.
| Bicycle |