Each evening in November, the huge advertising boards at Piccadilly Circus are being replaced with a video art commission.
Baa’s House 11, a trompe-l’oeil commission will create the appearance of a three-dimensional space behind and beyond the screen and will show the artist, Hetain Patel’s grandmother looking out from the screen and surveying the people watching at street level.
Concept image by the artist – in an unrealistic daylight setting for a nighttime event
Hetain Patel is a British artist of Indian descent who frequently works with family members and has expressed the creative potential inherent in familial bonds and domestic settings. Patel’s work also embodies the spirit of Derek Jarman in the way it challenges perceptions, pushes creative practices forward and gives a voice to communities too often marginalised.
The artwork will be displayed each evening in November at 8:21pm for a short while. It was commissioned by CIRCA and presented in collaboration with The Film London Jarman Award.
Most people haven’t noticed, but that announcement by Westminster City Council that it was abandoning its proposed scheme for Oxford Circus means that both GLA and Westminster schemes down the drain.
This is an ideal opportunity for Westminster to be innovative and provide itself with the nucleus of a tram system taking in Regent Street, Oxford Street, Piccadilly as far as Harrods, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road. All other traffic banned on tram streets. Trams to transport shoppers round and about Shopping City.That’s what they want, and it’s what we want.
The Oxford Circus scheme isn’t abandoned – just pending more consultations with local residents.
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2021/09/15/oxford-circus-pedestrianisation-plan-delayed/