Miwa Takabayashi's Packaged is constructed using origami and modern packaging techniques. Photo Lianne Bell
Britain’s largest shopping centre company, The Mall, is presenting two new art projects based around people and consumerism, at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead until November 22 2007.
The first, called 1000 Faces of the Mall, by London based photographer Hal Satterthwaite, is a collection of colour portrait photographs taken in The Mall’s 23 shopping centres around Britain.
They celebrate the cultural diversity and individuality of the people he came across and give a sense of the range of communities that exist around each Mall.
“The 1000 Faces collection is a simple and direct project which aims to show that art can be accessible for all and that beautiful and fascinating people are everywhere, not just in magazines,” explained Satterthwaite.
The project originated in Walthamstow, East London. Satterthwaite had returned to the UK after working as a nurse in Sydney and was struck by the happiness that existed in his area, despite the melting-pot of race and culture.
He saw this in particular contrast to the less racially integrated Australia. For 14 months, twice a week, for five hours he sat in Walthamstow Town Square persuading people to have their pictures taken.
Hal Satterthwaite's photos were taken in shopping centres across Britain. Photo Lianne Bell
His project was funded by a Lottery grant and the photographs were originally displayed on a wall 37 metres long and two metres high near the local train station.
The second exhibit is by Miwa Takabayashi and occupies the centre of the gallery space. Called Packaged, the three-metre-high cardboard structure uses the principles of packaging design and traditional origami techniques.
It explores the interaction between people, the consumer objects they buy and the contemporary shopping environment, looking at the idea of consumerism as a multitude of scenarios and simulations that has replaced reality. The exhibit can be entered in order to provide sanctuary or ‘escape’ space.
Takabayashi, who describes herself as a 'self-confessed shopper', originally trained as an oil painter in Tokyo. She moved to England to study at Goldsmiths College where she received a Postgraduate Diploma in Visual Arts.
In 1999, she continued her studies at Newcastle University where she started working with 3D sculpture and multimedia installation art.
The exhibition coincides with the British Council of Shopping Centres Retail Conference which is being held at Gateshead Quayside in November. Both works will also be on display at The Mall Shopping Centres throughout the UK in 2008.
