#ArtThursdays

#ArtThursdays - Gaia's Garden

This week, we checked out the Gaia's Garden Street Exhibition. The pop-up showcase of photography was spotted on the way to Hatton Garden, London's jewellery district. The garden itself, is a new community-built pop-up garden, focusing on celebrating sustainability. 

Gaia’s Garden was conceptualised by five young female creatives from across fashion, graphic design, movement, music, and photography. Mentored by Noga-Levy Rapoport, an ambassador for the UK Student Climate Network, the group’s vision is to present sustainability through a more inclusive and feminist lens.

Located in 61 Holborn Viaduct.

 Award-winning creative studio Play Nice is spearheading the project in partnership with London-based property developer Dominvs Group to platform the ideas of the young people on The Pattern, a cultural incubator programme launched after Play Nice won the £50,000 Fusion Prize - a Culture Mile initiative, in partnership with Foundation for Future London - earlier this year.

Over 200 young people across London were recruited to help with everything from gardening, building, and curating a live events programme of workshops, talks and performances focused on climate change, sustainable practices and people.

Gaia's Garden offers Londoners free workshops and events who are looking to learn more about sustainability. There are also installations and performances, art, fashion, and music - helping to explore the relationship between humans and the real world. Essentially it focuses on art in sustainability in art form.

Gaia’s Garden is part of the Lord Mayor’s Culture and Commerce Taskforce’s Enhancing the City initiative, which seeks to fill repurposed commercial spaces across the City with curated creative activity in order to animate the area and drive footfall.

"These images were shot at the mouth of the River Thames stream, cherishing moments of serenity as its citizens bask in and cherish the rare seasonal sunshine flows through the city. The appetite for stillness is mirrored in the calm setting, quite different from the ordinarily busy city that holds the capital's ambience."

El Jardin de Espejos

"I like the idea of spring. It's joyous, warm, welcoming and everything is in bloom. I wanted the space of Gaia's Garden to embody that feeling. Sustainability is a topic many people shy away from because they can't see themselves as part of the change; I want everyone to feel at home in this space and conversation. This work is an attempt to create an image which is playful and inviting." - Andrea Siso

"This photo is of Tom, as he dives into an overgrown border to harvest his Hokkaido squashes. Having been planted against a hot, sunny wall, the squash plants have grown bigger, bushier and more productive than he could have imagined. Growing in the city can be full of surprises. Some crops exceed all expectations, while others get claimed by creatures we share the city with - like foxes and slugs. That's part of what keeps it interesting." - Rachel Jones

Mom's phlegm, 2017

"London is full of natural beauty, especially when you look beneath the surface. The underbellies of nature and what I am truly drawn to, the damp and sticky algae infested ponds, fungi covered surfaces and beds of moss. These are some of the aspects of nature that mostly get overlooked with photography, I capture what I see which is these fascinating painterly natural surfaces. The angles and proportions used encourage the viewer to look closer and consider these parts of nature with more awe." - Zerrin Asir

"Sister sister is a part of a project which aims to celebrate the innate familiarity between black women, A lot of my work focuses on colour play and placing the subject in a space that echoes their inner worlds/desires. I set this project in a wood like area almost like a secret place where women/girls can go to and feel accepted and seen by other women." - Latoya Fits

STAY is a youth organisation based in Woodberry Down, Hackney. Rico and Miro, pictured here, are two of STAY's founding members. They led the shoot to document the old estate, its regeneration and nature's place within both. This photograph is one in a series by Joya Berrow and Rafi Spangenthal.

"This photo is part of my ongoing archival project Young London which I started when I was 16 (now at 22) which seeks to document the young people that make us in the city. As a lot of people I photograph are closest to me, this allows me to capture moments of intimacy whilst offering a window into their lives." - Flora Scott

"Linaira Vulgaris (Common Toadflax) from an ongoing project; portraits of 'weeds' or wildflowers that can be found in the city. Focusing on these often 'unseen' species I aim to highlight their beauty and to help foster a strong relationship with the plants that share our urban spaces." @rowanspray - Rowan Spray

The garden’s sustainable landscape was designed by urban transformation charity Urban Growth. Once the project finishes, these temporary structures will be redistributed across London, finding continued use in local communities across the capital.

The garden was conceptualised by @nogalevyrapoport, @itsnysza, @siso.studio, @eleanorgracehann_, @ayzmar_ + @tinawetshi.