Royal London Hospital

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I was recently commissioned to create artwork for the newly opened children’s ward in Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. Here is a little bit about the commission:

00 all roomsignage

ANIMAL-ED ROOMS

I wanted to make the signage understandable for the youngest children. As well as numbering the rooms I had the idea of ‘animal-ing’ them, giving each door and room an animal theme, actually I got the idea from one of my favourite artists, Katsumi Komagata. There’s a lion room, a parrot room, a fish room etc. Each room has the same elements but with a different animal, for example the lion room has the lion’s face labeled on the door, a framed print of the the lion and cub hiding in the grass, a framed woven rug of the lions portrait, and two vinyl stickers of the two lions chatting and running hidden somewhere on the walls.

 bedroom door CH1lion

3lion

lion

RUGS

The hand-woven rugs are all made by a fair trade group which I helped set up in Nepal. I thought that one of the nice things about using rugs was that they give a soft cosy feel to the room which otherwise feels a little cold and sterile.

rugs

Screen Shot 2014-10-14 at 13.18.18  Screen Shot 2014-10-14 at 13.19.14 Screen Shot 2014-10-14 at 13.18.40  DSC03209 DSC03148  DSC03136      DSC03111Playroom with rug copy

LIFE-SIZED DINOSAURS AND ELEPHANTS

In the corridors and shared spaces I wanted to make use of the large space to their best effect and so made a life-size grouping of different animals all together including a huge elephant and dinosaur peering down from the ceiling. They are all being looked after by a monkey dressed as a doctor. There is also a very long snake which runs the entire length of the corridor.

 Family kitchen corridor doors openCH copyEntrance corridorCH copy Family kitchenCH Recpt desk with doctor CH

In the playroom for a bit of fun there are five monkeys dressed in doctor’s white coats playing jazz  

jazz band playroom.CH.

Along the length of another corridor is a giant 31 metre colourful snake being examined by another monkey doctor with a stethoscope.

Ward printsCH    IMG_0854        Bedroom door3CHBedroom rug2CH Bedroom printsCH

00 6rabbit             00 5parrot

Vital Arts, who commissioned this also worked with some of my favourite artists on other wards including Donna Wilson, Morag Myerscough, Miller Goodman, Tord Boontje and Bob and Roberta Smith. This work for NHS public hospitals is all gratefully funded by private and corporate donations.

Take a look at the other beautiful commissions in the press coverage below.

We were even on the 6 o’clock BBC News!

Creative Review
Domus
Slate
Huffingtonpost
Buzzfeed
Designboom
Digital Arts Online

By |2020-05-13T12:50:00+00:00February 21st, 2015|Tags: , , , , , , |4 Comments

NODE launch at the DESIGN MUSEUM

Our collection of eighteen rugs is launching!

LOTS OF PUBLIC EVENTS SEE BELOW
come to the public opening in the DESIGN MUSEUM all day on saturday or the kids workshop on sunday

for the launch party
5th March 6-9.30pm in the Design Museum, London
RSVP to info (at) madebynode.com

Please come along to see the collection. There are a limited edition of 10 rugs by each of these amazing artists.

Beatrice Alemagna | Sanna Annukka | Lesley Barnes | Petra Borner | Chamo | Benji Davies | Chris Haughton | Clayton Junior | Jon Klassen | Micah Lidberg | Joe Magee | Geoff McFetridge | Neasden Control Centre | Patternity | Craig Robinson | Serge Seidlitz | Marcroy Smith | Kevin Waldron | Donna Wilson

ArtistChamo-rug-design

In addition to the launch night, the collection is open to the public at the events below:
…………….…………….………………………….…………..……………. 
Fri 1st March
Design Overtime evening event in the gallery where the rugs are installed.
Drinks and music in designmuseum after hours
Chris Haughton will do a short talk (15-20min) about how the project happened
…………….…………….………………………….…………..……………. 
Sat 2nd March 
Gallery open all day 10-17.45
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Sun 3rd March 
Chris Haughton book launch and workshop for kids in the gallery alongside the rugs 
Come down for a reading of A Bit Lost, Oh No George and see the new fair trade puppets and toys.
2.00-3.30pm
Free with museum entrance. Booking not required.
designmuseum.org/families/workshops

 

…………….…………….………………………….…………..……………. 
Mon 4th March 
Pecha Kucha Night: Fair Trade theme
Talk is from 19.30 to 20.45. Drink afterwards until 21.30
PAID EVENT Buy tickets here:
…………….…………….………………………….…………..……………. 
TUESDAY 5th March 
Morning Press event 9-11am

 

RUG LAUNCH PARTY
6-9.30pm
RSVP

 

 

watch the rugs in the collection being made here and follow us on facebook to see more:

 

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/49377756 w=500&h=281] 
creativereview
 
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By |2020-05-13T12:50:00+00:00February 24th, 2013|Tags: , |0 Comments

Creative Review front cover

creativereview

wow! i cant believe the press our little fair trade start-up is getting!!! the front cover and a great feature in CREATIVE REVIEW!!!!

 

the design is by sanna annukka and is part of our collection for the design museum shop

 

visit the node site:
like them on facebook or follow on twitter to see these rugs in production as they are made
By |2020-05-13T12:50:01+00:00November 29th, 2012|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Gibson Hotel Artwork

I recently made artwork for the interiors of the Gibson hotel in Dublin. The Gibson is a very modern 4 star hotel right next to, and same owner as the O2, which is Irelands largest music venue. The idea is that the performers and audience can stay after gigs and so its music themed. They asked me if i could do some artwork ‘around rock legends’ Eventually we decided to do artwork with songs hidden inside them. It was a pretty nice job to work on (!)

a

The mural in the bar features three songs hidden inside the images. Its 5m high.

play> Led Zeppelin: Stairway to heaven 
play> Fela Kuti: Water No Get Enemy  a good article about Fela
play> Bob Dylan: All Along the watchtower said the joker to thief’

b

The mural in the restaurant is 10 metres wide. In the details you can see..

play> Velvet Underground: Venus in Furs based on the sascha-masoch novel
play> Can: Mushroom ‘when i saw her mushroom head… i was born, i was dead…’ (see the atom bomb)
play> Bob Marley: Get Up, Stand Up ‘if you know what life is worth… ‘ ..some of my favourite lyrics
play> Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit  (this is the psychedelic section!)
play> Beatles: Lucy in the sky with Diamonds 
play> Bob Dylan: Mr Tambourine Man.’..then take me disappearin’ thru the smoke rings of my mind’

 Screen_shot_2011-09-11_at_13.54.23

 
These additional pieces were used as their menus and elsewhere
 
play> Bob Dylan: You aint goin nowhere 
play> 
Billie Holiday: Strange fruit wikipedia article>
play> Beatles: A Day in the Life ‘woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head….’

play> Brian Eno: Spider and I

play> Beatles: Hello Goodbye 
play> Pink Floyd: See Emily Play
 
Screen_shot_2011-09-11_at_13.39.58
 
These are some shots in production or ideas that didnt make the final cut. The original idea was to have the actual lyrics alongside the artwork but we couldnt do that in the end for fear of copyright issues. 
Perhaps the most unusual thing about the project was that i did all of this work while i was in Kathmandu. I was working there with a fair trade group to make rugs when I was approached by the Gibson. In fact i originally proposed that we do the artworks as RUGS!! A huge thanks to the design team and Harry Crosbie, (he’s the developer behind the hotel as well as Vicar StThe O2 and Grand Canal Theatre, some of Dublins nicest venues) The team were very keen on the rugs, I explained about the work we were doing at NODEand they were considering making the entire mural as a rug, the only thing that stopped it was the long production time (for 40sqm+ of hand knotting!!) Instead it was done as a digital laminate print 

After we finished the job they have since bought 5 big rugs for the best rooms. They are in the penthouse room where the artists stay, this year including Bob Dylan, Roger Waters and Kylie Minogue (!) Pictured is Gibbo Pink from Aslan in the upstairs rooms
 
Thanks very much to tim at Neworld design and also to harry crosbie, im very proud to be involved in this. Take a look at the Gibson site below, it really is a stunning hotel

 

 
By |2020-05-13T12:50:03+00:00September 12th, 2011|Tags: , , |2 Comments
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