UAL/Clifford Chance Sculpture Award 2025

I am absolutely delighted to have won this award. The opportunity to create something three dimensional and on a large scale is just so exciting and chances like this seem rather rare so I'm making the most of it!

I was invited to apply for the award via my UAL showcase page.  It involved submitting a proposal detailing what I would put in the space; the reception area at Clifford Chance’s HQ in Canary Wharf.  I visited and began some research about Canary Wharf and the wider area of the Isle of Dogs.  My work is place oriented so for me this is an opportunity to explore the Isle of Dogs and create something site specific

I think I’ve only visited Canary Wharf once before, about 25 years ago when I randomly sailed a dinghy in one of the docks! The little knowledge I had of the area was mainly gained from the BBC's ‘Call the Midwife’ and the memoirs of Jennifer Worth that the show was originally based on.  A trip to the London Docklands Museum (a fabulous place!) was very enlightening and a few hours wandering the streets with a sketchbook gave me some further ideas.

I proposed a large ‘Welcome Buoy’ to sit at the top of the escalators as you approach the reception area.  This would be a wire sculpture covered in letter pressed prints saying ‘Welcome’ in many languages reflecting both the international nature of Clifford Chance and the history of the foreign goods and people entering London via the Thames, particularly the docks on the Isle of Dogs (interestingly there are many theories but no consensus or firm ideas about where the name came from).

Sketch of 'Welcome Buoy' sited at the top of the escalators at Clifford Chance HQ Canary Wharf

There is a very long wall with two pillars part way along it, 8m apart, as you head in to the reception space.  I proposed an enormous collage of prints to hang in this space.  Overall, it will depict the meander in the Thames that surrounds the Isle of Dogs, but the land will be made of marsh and wetland images, the water of skyscrapers.  I was fascinated to discover that as little as 230 years ago when the first docks were built the Isle of Dogs was predominantly marsh and animal grazing land known as Stepney Marsh.  The meander had tried to naturally straighten which would have created an ox-bow lake down by Deptford, human intervention prevented this but left a 5-acre lake called the Poplar Cut, this became the West India Dock when the first docks were built.  The columns seemed to be begging to be used and so I proposed turning them into tower cranes, but tower cranes made of wood.

Proposal of collage showing aerial view of the Isle of Dogs with pillars covered in prints in tower crane pattern

I want these pieces to prompt the viewer to consider where they are; London is London because of the River Thames. For millennia people and goods have arrived and departed via the water. The buoy might prompt some thought about modes of travel and how they have changed over time. The multiple languages on the buoy all saying 'Welcome' should make everyone feel welcomed. The languages have been chosen to ensure they represent the countries Clifford Chance has offices in, therefore should ensure the majority of viewers can be welcomed in their own language.

The collage is designed to prompt thought about the history of the land beneath our feet and the other species that once thrived here before humans built a concrete and steel jungle. In this age of climate change and mass extinction it's worth noting that the current financial and business district of Canary Wharf was built on land already radically altered by human activity; after 200 years of booming trade the docks closed and buildings were abandoned. Regenerating built land seems preferable to felling trees or building on fields. I want the imagery within the collage to tell the story of the river being the reason for all the human activity in London. The land will try to depict the Stepney marshes with a focus on many of the bird species associated with wetlands.

So thats the proposal, now I just have to make it all.....