THAMESMEAD.- Peabody has partnered with a local community street art group to co-commission six murals across Thamesmead, with sites including lift shafts, tower vents and garage doors. Nadina Ali, duo Daisy Allen and Ellen Camilla Rose, Paige Denham, Lours, creative collective Trapped in Zone One (lead artist Alex Cullen) and Jeru Nomi make up the line-up of artists whose proposals were selected from over thirty submissions via an open call. Featuring vibrant typography, ‘ordinary’ shapes from the urban environment and local wildlife, with Thamesmead’s swans taking centre stage, the new murals will serve as striking indicators that signal to the area’s creative community.

These new works will become part of the Thamesmead Street Art Trail, following a 2020 commission that saw eight permanent murals created for Thamesmead’s underpasses by Jo Peel, Louis Masai, Hixxy, Curtis Hylton, Paige Denham and Keith Hau. The new commissions will help cement the area’s status as a top destination to see street art in London. Making culture a part of everyday life in Thamesmead is central to Peabody’s long-term plan to improve, grow and look after the town.

Currently based in Thamesmead, Nadina Ali is a graphic artist from Marseille. Passionate about social justice, representation and inclusivity, she uses bold and colourful typography to address those topics in a way that is easier to engage with for a wider range of people and with the aim of amplifying the voices of under-represented people. “To me, street art is the ultimate form of public art as everyday people can easily connect and engage with it and it has the power to beautify urban spaces in a way that can impact local communities positively.” For her Thamesmead commission, Nadina proposes a typography-based work that will welcome people to the neighbourhood and make a statement along a main road in Thamesmead.

Creative duo Daisy Allen and Ellen Camilla Rose originally met at Lewisham School of Muralism, where they learnt the art of producing community-engaged murals. Together, they aim to bring vibrancy and colour to public spaces, inspiring people by exploring the social themes that connect us. Their Thamesmead mural designs feature a vibrant colour palette and images of local wildlife. “We love the fact that murals sit outside of the gallery context and have the potential to engage the wider public. We are acutely aware of how stressful city life can be, the noise, pollution and overstimulation. We would like to make a mural that offers people a place of calm, to stop and rest, to take stock, to unwind”.

A Thamesmead-native print and textile designer, Paige Denham, who was chosen to paint one of the underpass murals in 2020, has been selected again to create a new work in her distinctive bright and colourful patterning style, inspired by her love of architecture. For this new commission, she will pick out ‘ordinary’ shapes from the local area and bring them together into a composition celebrating the everyday world of Thamesmead.

Working across mediums, Madrid-born Lours is an urban, digital and studio artist with roots in graffiti muralism and theatrical performance. Upon moving to London, she was deeply influenced by the vibrant British graffiti and street art scene, which took her practice in a new direction. Working in what she describes as a ‘surrealist-realist’ style, her art practice is her method of communication with the world. For her Thamesmead commission, she wants to bring “visual joy” to Thamesmead’s concrete walls.

Trapped in Zone One is a not-for-profit London based creative organisation, engaging with communities to enhance spaces through creating public murals, using creativity to inspire young people and the opportunity of bringing people together. For their Thamesmead commission, led by Alex Cullen, they will be hosting a series of workshops, engaging with the local community to co-design a nature inspired concept which promotes the biodiversity of the local area in the form of a new community mural in Byron Close.

An illustrator, painter and muralist, Jeru Nomi uses a combination of concentric circles, spirals and line work to make vibrant, linear murals that celebrate colour, and feature motifs of nostalgia and nature. For her mural, Jeru wants to celebrate the balance of brutalist structures and surrounding nature that makes up Thamesmead’s landscape, including the swans.

Speaking about the design process, she said: “The first thing that caught my attention when researching Thamesmead was the Crossness pumping station. I was absolutely blown away by the elaborate Victorian design and ended up using some of the motifs to form the repeat pattern in my backdrop. I also thought it was essential to include the brutalist architecture because it is so iconic to Thamesmead. These features sit alongside the wildlife, birds and bugs found in the area and most importantly a depiction to honour the tragedy of the SS Princess Alice.”

Adriana Marques, Peabody’s Head of Thamesmead Cultural Strategy, said: “This new series of public artworks forms part of a collaboration with the Thamesmead community, with residents and local people commissioning things that they want to see. The 2020 street art commissions helped celebrate our landscape and the beautiful network of winding canals. Local residents are now wanting more murals to celebrate and elevate other parts of Thamesmead and have grown the ambition to put Thamesmead on the map as a street art destination. It’s great to see that ambition coming from within the local community”.