Nicknamed locally as the “Staircase of Dream”, “Towards a new normal” is the new community artwork by British artist The Fandangoe Kid (Annie Nicholson) made together with students from the Waltham Forest College. It is part of the William Morris Design Line, a community-focused design route in East London as part of the London Design Festival (12-20 September).
The artist - who in her works explores universal human experiences such as grief, mental health and emotional trauma - worked together with students via Zoom workshops this summer, deciding the concept and developing the final design. The work is a celebration of unity and highlights the urgency of activism for a better future: sentences in bold black such as “Brave New Youth”, “Time to Shake it Up” and “The Future is Now” are messages to support students and youth in general, specially in a period that has seen British students involved in the hard protests against the much-hated national algorithm that downgraded A-level students causing the loss of accesses to universities.
“We are all emerging from periods of isolation and the very new experience of lockdown, even though we will all have different experiences of this time, I think we are all bound by a need to connect to other and communicate,” The Fandangoe Kid declared. “This installation is about how we navigate a new normal and how we push forward, despite the persistent uncertainty that the future holds.” The foundamental message is: you are not alone.
- Title:
- Towards a new normal
- Program:
- public artwork
- Artist:
- The Fandangoe Kid (Annie Nicholson)
- College:
- Waltham Forest College
- Organization:
- William Morris Design Line
- Venue:
- London Design Festival 2020 (12-20 September 2020)
- Duration:
- permanent