Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
A walk around the Wander Art trail in Mayfair and Belgravia. Too dispersed to feel like a real art ‘event’, but with some fun works to discover.
Tell Me Something Nice by Kinska, one of the dozen artworks on display around Mayfair and Belgravia.
Enjoying Spring Weather And Outdoor Art
You know what it’s like – you haven’t been somewhere in ages, and then end up being drawn to it multiple times in quick succession. It’s like that for myself and Mayfair. I probably hadn’t purposefully been to Mayfair in years. But then I ended up doing a walk from Piccadilly to Belgravia. And now here I am again today, this time to see Wander Art.
The website describes this concept as ‘London’s largest outdoor gallery’. It is certainly large. The works of 12 artists are on display (Maybe 11? More on that later), spanning an area from Oxford Street to Pimlico Road, a 40 minute walk if you discount the detours to find the artworks. As an aside it’s no coincidence that the two streets I’ve mentioned are shopping destinations; the Wander Art map has layers for shops, restaurants and galleries, so the idea is to generate foot traffic for local businesses. Nonetheless, like Sculpture in the Cityit brings art to spaces it might not otherwise be in; introduces visitors to new artists; and provides an enjoyable couple of hours for the art-starved, lockdown-bored Londoner.
I did this walk before shops and commercial galleries were open, so this feeling was particularly acute. But it’s still useful to have a few socially-distanced activities in the fresh air up our sleeves, and you could do worse than Wander Art.
Wander Art – Along Balderton Street
Red Hot Contrasts, Julien Colombier. I had to do a double take when I was looking for the first artwork on our walk. “Wait, is it seriously this construction hoarding? That’s the artwork?” Well, yes it is! Colombier aims to bring us heat and sensuality during the cold winter months. I like a quote of his on the Wander Art website: “What makes street art a special experience is that people didn’t ask for it, like in a museum or a gallery, they just pass by and see your work.” For him this means you need to be convincing, and your artwork needs to be part of the urban landscape. Job done, I think – it’s fun, different, and brings some jungle flair to Balderton Street!It’s always worth looking out for existing artworks in their “natural habitat” when you’re following an art trail. In this case the sculpture is also a hotel suite: this is Roomby Antony Gormley.This little rooftop garden was a great discovery for me! Brown Hart Gardens sits on top of an electrical substation – a compromise with local residents when the substation dislodged a park which was formerly at ground level. Basking in the sun up here is Watching You Grow by Margaux Carpentier. The Gardens inspired Carpentier to create something big, bold and colourful, something which represents growth and nature, yet is static, made of metal. This was one of my favourite pieces on the trail for its bright and happy colours and reassuringly bulky presence.
Wander Art – North Audley Street to Mount Street Gardens
Wild Lights, Fernando Laposse. This one is interesting because my understanding of the works at first glance changed completely when I read the artist’s statement on the website. What looks like the most luscious of fake furs is in fact hand-woven agave fibres died with cochineal. And I am so dense I saw these and went “Oh, purple gorillas!” when in fact they are clearly sloths. I’ve never seen a gorilla performing acrobatic feats. Laposse often turns humble materials into polished design pieces as he does here. He also engages with indigenous communities to manufacture the works. Here, he worked with a group of artisans in Tonahuixtla. “Sustainable design with a social purpose”, but also a great sense of fun and whimsy.See Through, Morag Myerscough. We first saw this artwork on our recent walk around Mayfair which ended at Grosvenor Square. See Through is fun, and bright, and hopeful. Myerscough puts community interaction at the forefront of her work, and this installation has instantly become a focal point of Grosvenor Square. Children playing, people taking selfies, detours to allow passers by to pass through – it’s become a temporary community hub. The placards take phrases Myerscough wrote as a daily activity during the first lockdown in 2020.In Plants We Trust, Yinka Ilori. We have seen Mount Street Gardens (top image) before, on the same Mayfair walk I just mentioned. This installation is slightly outside the Gardens proper, however, so I missed it last time. For me, this piece doesn’t work quite as well as some others on the Wander Art trail. Partly I think this is due to location. In Plants We Trust is a shrine to our household plants, promoting health and well-being. However, as you can see the crown of plants is now looking a little the worse for wear. And the location is a bit out of the way, which may have contributed to a bit of neglect. Even moving it to a different entrance of Mount Street Gardens, the one on South Audley Street, might have encouraged more civic pride. The colours do really pop though, so it does stand out amongst all the stately brick buildings.
Wander Art – Across Hyde Park to Belgravia
This is when you start to realise just what a wide area Wander Art covers. We trekked for what seemed like a long time across the wilds of Hyde Park Corner (complete with refuelling stop), to Knightsbridge and beyond. Granted I am being a bit melodramatic, but if you are wiser than I am you may want to split Wander Art into its northern and southern sections and do it across a couple of trips.The Five Fields, Jordan Söderberg Mills. The Five Fields was the original name for Belgravia, which stood at a crossroads. The artist is playing here with the idea of a crossroads as a location between worlds, a magical threshold. The ends of the columns reflect the sky or the viewer’s face, and the work transforms our sense of space. Halkin Arcade was a nice little discovery. As well as checking out this work and the Gillie and Marc Friendship Bench (top image), I recommend the hole in the wall selling delicious gyoza.Small, Medium, Large, Richard Woods. This is a quintessentially playful work of art. Woods disavows assigning lots of specific meanings to his works, but I think it’s an interesting intersection that he worked as a carpenter for several years. Small, Medium, Large reflects the choice we all continually face in modern life. The houses sit in Lower Grosvenor Gardens, dwarved by the surrounding buildings.
Wander Art – Around Eccleston Yards
Face to Face, André Mendes. A line drawing which reveals a face/faces; the interpretation depends on the viewer’s vantage point. There’s a lot more to it: according to the artist “[t[he yellow and red rounded forms reinforce the idea of three-dimensionality, representing gravity and spatiality, the ground and the sky polarity, bringing movement, tension and depth.” But essentially it is bold and intriguing, bringing added interest to this street corner behind Victoria.[Have You Seen The Lions?, Ricardo Cavolo]. Is it just me, or is there a missing artwork on the Wander Art trail? The website gives a great description of HaveYou Seen The Lions as a mural at the Ebury Street entrance to Eccleston Yards. I went in the Ebury Street entrance. Nothing. I had a look around the Yards. Nothing. I retraced my steps and looked again for a big lion mural. Still nothing. Very confusing, please someone tell me in the comments if I’m just dim-witted and missed it entirely… If it’s not there, it would be helpful if the organisers told you as much.The Only Way Is Up, Craig & Karl. The other work in Eccleston Yards is a lot easier to find. Craig & Karl work collaboratively despite living respectively in New York and London. Bent towards the ground, the flower seems weary, which is in contrast to its bright and breezy depiction. There is a sense of hope and humour here which aims to uplift us from our current circumstances.
Wander Art – Elizabeth Street to Pimlico Road
Fabriques, Emily Forgot. At first glance these little sculptures are so small as to be very unassuming. A ‘fabrique’ is, by definition, a small, picturesque building intended to ornament a park. These fabriques were inspired by the shell huts in Grosvenor Gardens, so it seems almost odd that another work on the Wander Art trail would be placed there, but not this one. I like the way these sculptures feel like scaled-up children’s toys, but I think a park setting might have been more effective.And finally, the most southerly of the artworks on the Wander Art trail. This is Tell Me Something Nice by Kinska. We started with an artwork doubling as construction hoarding, so it seems somehow fitting to end with something that doubles as a planter/seating area. Both works show us that art can be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing, or that functional spaces can be artistic. Kinska’s aim is to be playful, imaginative and creative, and I think Tell Me Something Nice definitely achieves that. This is a great finish to the trail. After all that walking it’s nice to have a spot to sit and discuss what you’ve seen. There’s even a farmer’s market just across the street for refuelling – not sure of timings so best to research it yourself if you want to hit up both.
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One thought on “Wander Art – Mayfair and Belgravia Art Trail”
One thought on “Wander Art – Mayfair and Belgravia Art Trail”