Most billboards sell you something. This one asks you to trust a stranger. A strange move in cultural place making?
Not so. At our client Paddington Square, artist Harold Offeh has just unveiled a work the size of a house with the line running across it, ‘Trustful Strangers Induce Fearless Walks‘. This phrase wasn’t written by Offeh alone. It came from 25 young Londoners, aged 16 to 24, from The Showroom’s Imagining Futures programme.
Through workshops, collages, role-play, spoken word and conversations, Offeh and the group of young people explored the idea of public space and the importance of building communities which care and look out for each other.
One sentence came through the discussion and it’s now the biggest thing that the millions of people visiting Paddington Square will read.
Why give teenagers a billboard?
Because Great Western Developments Ltd, the funders and owners of Paddington Square, wanted to create work unique to the communities around the site and worked with cultural studio Lacuna and The Showroom Gallery to bring this ambition to life.
Offeh’s work is one of three giant billboard commissions that have been created. They’re part of a wider public art programme that has brought major new public works to Paddington Square, which together with the Sterling Prize nominated building, provide a new world class welcome to London for the 30 million people who travel through Paddington Station every year.
The process of creating this work has brought people together and sparked new conversations and opportunities. For Offeh‘s work, the benefits to the 25 young people involved goes beyond just experience. Some have gone on to secure work in the creative industries, including at galleries and museums. Others have used the project for their university applications, with a few creating their own shows.
These outcomes are just part of broader impact of the public art programme at Paddington Square, highlighting what can happen when developers work with artists and communities to create shape places.
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