HOUSE OF PAIN
The Public’s Screams Light Up Building by Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue
Artists were commissioned to convert hoardings and derelict buildings into public works of art to celebrate the history of Bankside amid its rapid regeneration.
Artists Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue designed a site-specific installation in a disused dental practice before its demolition. Visitors were greeted by a receptionist and then led into a back room of the building to have a cathartic scream in private. Their vocal outpourings generated an instant light installation that reverberated throughout the building. Changing constantly with the quality of their voices, the public's screams translated into a large-scale public artwork visible from the street below. The complex play of light and shadow became a focal point of the busy high street in London Bridge.
More than 27,000 people participated over 20 days (5 hours a day). The installation proved to be a positive and therapeutic experience for everyone who participated, then with endorphins released they stepped back onto a bustling London street.
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Date 20 days in September/October 2013
Location A disused dentist practice before demolition, Zenith House, 135 Borough High Street, London Bridge, SE1 1NP
Curated and Produced by Illuminate Productions in partnership with Better Bankside and Tate Modern.
Supported by Arts Council England, Southwark Council, Kings College and Science Gallery.
Key coverage total reach 18 million. Media included: Metro, Time Out , InSE1, Now Here This Time Out, All in London, Visit London, View London, Weekend Notes, Londonist, The Quietus and Art Rabbit.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue collaborated under the name ML Studios. Between them they have created live events and shows for large audiences, working on some of the largest concerts in the world. Their work combines film-making, animation, lighting, interaction and stagecraft to produce hard-edged theatrical experiences.
Marcus Lyall
Marcus has created experimental film and interactive projects for the last 20 years. Starting with live film shows during the days of rave, he moved on to specialise in making visuals for large-scale concerts. He now works on a range of moving-image projects, from stage visuals for Metallica's award-winning feature film to directing a commercial starring Lionel Messi. He has created a number of artworks which have been exhibited at galleries worldwide including; The ICA London, National Gallery of Australia, Seoul Museum of Modern Art and The Science Museum, London.
Mark Logue
Mark trained in Fine Art at Central St Martins. Becoming interested in digital film-making, he set up Punk Films to produce music videos, live visuals and experimental documentaries. As well as producing visuals for bands including U2 and The Rolling Stones, he has collaborated with a number of leading contemporary artists on film projects. He is also the co-author of a book about his grandfather, Lionel Logue, subject of the award-winning film The King's Speech.
RELATED PROJECTS
Before I Die by Candy Chang
Hoardings around derelict buildings on Borough High Street, Flat Iron Square, Union Street and Borough Market. 380 days, 2013/2014
Also part of Bankside Transformed; Candy Chang's Before I Die interactive installations became a strong focal point for people passing through the area The public were encouraged to write their thoughts and ambitions on giant blackboards.
Each response represented an individual’s unique desire and values, and each wall offered a snapshot of our shared anxieties and hopes, our collective joys and struggles. By creating spaces where we can share our inner lives in public; Before I Die reimagines the ways we remember what really matters in an age of increasing distraction and flux.
Drawing upon Michel de Montaigne’s proposition that “to philosophize is to learn to die,” the Before I Die project examines the ways the walls of our cities can help us grapple with death and meaning as a community today.
To date over 4000 Before I Die walls have since been created in over 35 languages, in more than 70 countries including: Kazakhstan, Argentina, China, Italy, Israel, Thailand, and South Africa. The project has been described as “one of the most creative community projects ever,” by The Atlantic.
We later worked with Candy on a couple of other projects: Sidewalk Psychiatry - where the artist posed various psychological questions on the pavements around Bankside (2014); and Confessions - where the public wrote down their personal admissions in confession boxes on public streets (2017).
Watch now: Before I Die meets the House of Pain
About the Artist
Through her activation’s of public spaces around the world, artist Candy Chang creates communal rituals for emotional health. Her work examines the dynamics between society and the psyche, the threshold between isolation and community, and the role of the commons in contemporary wellbeing.
She is a recipient of the TED Senior Fellowship, Tulane University Urban Innovation Fellowship, University of Michigan Bicentennial Alumni Award, Columbia University Urban Planning Award for Outstanding Contribution to Leadership in Planning Education, and Tony Goldman Visionary Artist Award. She was named one of the Top 100 Leaders in Public Interest Design by Impact Design Hub, a “Live Your Best Life” Local Hero by Oprah Magazine, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Her work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale, New Museum, Tate Modern, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. She is an international speaker on community, creativity, and emotional health, and her TED talk has been viewed over five million times.
Performer by Adam Frank
Beneath a Railway Bridge in London Bridge.
90 days, October 2015 – January 2016
New York-based artist Adam Frank brought his work Performer to the UK for the first time. The playful interactive installation encouraged participants to perform under a bright spotlight, in which a computer-controlled audio audience applauds them as they become more active.
The installation used a real-time audio audience simulation and movement sensor to produce an illusion of a 500-member audience applauding just for them. If the participant was less active, the virtual audience calmed and eventually went silent (except for an occasional cough or clearing of the throat). When the viewer left the illuminated area, applause proportional to the total amount of movement in that session was activated.
Commissioned by Better Bankside and part funded by Transport for London, Curated and Produced by Illuminate Productions. Supported by Network Rail.
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About the Artist
Adam Frank is an artist, designer and product inventor. His work is an ongoing investigation of light, interactivity and our perception of nature. His pieces each carry an air of mystery that blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Early in his career, Adam co-created Dogz and Catz, the world’s first virtual pets. For this work he is widely credited for defining a new category of computer software.
Adam has shown around the globe, his public art commissions include: The City of Denver permanent public installation where each evening as the sun sets, a projected sun rises on a building downtown (2011), he produced a large-scale artwork for the City of Seattle featuring their hydroelectric power sources (2012), a monumental scale LUCID mirror in downtown Brooklyn (2016) and In 2018 Adam was awarded a commission from the City of San Diego for a permanent, large scale, site-specific, new media art installation. This work will be installed at Presidio Park, known as the ‘birthplace’ of California.