Town Hall Artworks: Artists Commissions

In July 2012 the second phase of artworks were fully installed. These included works by:

Bernd Behr
Bethan Lloyd Worthington
Corinne Felgate
Kristian de la Riva
Michaela Nettell
Sarah Baker
Toby Christian

It also included several follow-on pieces by Phase I artist Peter Liversidge. In the first phase Peter created a book of 98 proposals based on the history of the building, the land the building stands on, and local history. For the second phase of commissions Peter realised some of these proposals, including a series of Winter Drawings for Room 111, a history wall situated in the hotel’s lobby and a guide to the local area.

Whereas the inaugural series of commissions focused on context, locality and history of the Bethnal Green Town Hall, the second phase thematically explored works that conveyed the future; embracing the exuberance, desire (material and sensual), and the notion of hotels as transitory and utopian sites of pleasure and hyper-mobility.

Artists commissioned for the first phase were Bálint Bolygó, Debbie Lawson, Peter Liversidge, Claire Morgan, Zoë Mendelson and walkwalkwalk, selected by a panel comprising 2007 Turner Prize shortlisted artist Zarina Bhimji, artist Frances Scott, rare architects Nathalie Rozencwajg and Michel da Costa Gonçalves, Artsadmin’s Director Gill Lloyd MBE, Manick Govinda, Nikki Tomlinson and Iwona Blazwick OBE (Director, Whitechapel Gallery) from an initial 176 applications.