UP IN SMOKE BY JOHN BOOTH & CAN

Celebrating a Decade of Design Excellence: NOW Gallery Unveils 2024 Design Commission "Up in Smoke"

As part of NOW Gallery's ongoing festivities marking its 10th anniversary, we proudly announce our highly anticipated Design Commission of 2024 - "Up in Smoke." This commission, a testament to our commitment to showcasing visionary talents, is brought to life by the dynamic designer-architect duo John Booth and Mat Barnes from CAN. Their unique perspective and innovative approach continue to redefine the boundaries of design, fashion, art, and photography.

From June 21 to September 22, 2024, the gallery space will be transformed into a vibrant, interactive installation-"Up In Smoke". This artwork, a living testament to the area's rich history, captures the essence of Greenwich Peninsula. It weaves together memories of its lively past and evolution into the vibrant cultural epicentre it is today. We invite you to explore this unique transformation, which is free to the public and open for all to enjoy.

"Up in Smoke" seamlessly merges Booth's playful, colourful design aesthetic with CAN's fresh, irreverent architectural approach. The project delves into the area's industrial and residential heritage, focusing on chimneys as a symbol of its narrative continuity. Chimneys remain emblematic despite their functional obsolescence due to technological advancements, linking us to our personal and collective histories.

The five reimagined chimneys in this exhibition represent the diverse facets of the area's history, from the 1700s Powder magazine to the modern gasworks structures. Hand-painted by Booth, these chimneys vividly portray Greenwich Peninsula's past while evoking personal memories associated with chimneys.

Visitors can explore, climb, and peer into these reimagined chimneys, fostering a deeper connection to the area's past while sparking imagination about future architectural possibilities. This immersive exhibition structure invites visitors of all ages to engage with history enjoyably and educationally.

John Booth and Mat Barnes say, “This project for NOW gallery at Greenwich Peninsula gives us an opportunity to fully realise the potential of a collaboration we’ve been working on for a number of years. The chimney holds such a romanticised position in how we collectively view and inhabit the city. We want to amplify these feelings and stir up personal memories and collective joy in the visitors that experience the installation. Chimneys like you’ve never seen them before and likely never see again.”

Curator Jemima Burrill says, “For our 10 year anniversary summer exhibition, Booth and Barnes are making giant chimneys to inhabit NOW Gallery at Greenwich Peninsula. Powerful symbols of the past, updated to become follies for a summer celebration of London’s proud architectural heritage. Chimneys are part of our city psyche and they define our skyline. John Booth’s colourful vision captures a summer essence and creates a joyful installation. Working with Barnes’ CAN architectural practice, 5 chimneys will celebrate the past and look to the future, instilling both history and a perfect interactive summer NOW Gallery experience.”

John Booth

John Booth is a Scottish-born fashion illustrator, ceramicist and textile designer based in London. Known for his textured, graphic works, John’s signature style is playful and colourful, and features a host of embroidery, bold line work and multi-layered collages spanning the fields of high fashion and interiors. He trained at Central Saint Martins and is now the college’s Associate Lecturer in Fashion. He teaches courses at other institutions such as BA Fashion at Westminster University, and has collaborated with designers such as Fendi, Ashish and Paul Smith.

CAN is an Architecture and Ideas studio founded by Mat Barnes. Since its formation in 2016, CAN has built a reputation for creating striking and idiosyncratic projects, underwritten by cultural and historical research. CAN designs projects that subvert and amplify their social and cultural contexts, using unexpected materials and forms. CAN was included in the Observer's Top 5 architecture of 2020 and was recognised with the RIBA Rising Star Award in 2021.

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Exhibition dates: June 21 -September 22, 2024

Private view - 20 June - 6pm - 10pm

NOW Gallery at Greenwich Peninsula www.nowgallery.co.uk

Free Entry

ABOUT NOW GALLERY

Conceived as part of the on-going regeneration of Greenwich Peninsula, NOW Gallery sits within a pavilion designed by architects Marks Barfield, moments from The O2 and North Greenwich station. One of the original buildings created by Knight Dragon, it is a public exhibition space for contemporary art, fashion, photography and design, with an ever-revolving programme of free to attend work from established and emerging artists, designers and other creative practitioners. Providing a place for investigation, NOW Gallery is a space for creatives to develop ideas and unprecedented artwork. It plays an important role of connecting to the locality via introducing interactive pieces of work that invite the public in to engage, contemplate and return, forming a relationship with the surrounding area and helping to shape the Greenwich Peninsula community.

ABOUT GREENWICH PENINSULA

Greenwich Peninsula is fast becoming the capital’s most boldly modern landscape. With 17,487 new homes, 12,000 new jobs and 48 acres of open public space emerging over the coming years. Here a community of thousands of pioneers live in new riverside homes, work in a cutting-edge Design District and enjoy the Tide, the neighbourhood’s elevated, riverside walkway and public art trail that celebrates art, design and wellbeing - all wrapped by the river Thames. This is new London: a destination for modern urban living.

Mat Barnes (director of CAN)