Lauren Godfrey
Lauren Godfrey
Pattern Portraits
Installation, 2020
Public realm curation and commissioning for King’s Cross, ‘Pattern Portraits’ by Lauren Godfrey was a series of banners that capture a personality through the sartorial choices they make, presenting the pattern on pattern layering as if an abstract landscape of undulating fabrics. A moment of joy and personal connection in a time of separation.
To create the designs, Godfrey worked during the Covid-19 lockdown with students from the BA Textiles Design course at King’s Cross’ Central Saint Martins and from STORE Store, a Coal Drops Yard-based initiative that helps local young people engage with applied creative arts. In virtual workshops participants created personal portraits by assembling their own clothes and patterned fabrics in colliding and undulating combinations, before drawing them in the mode of still life: a meditative, mindful exercise in observation, abstraction and colour application. Godfrey then distilled the drawings into bold and arresting shapes and colours, each one representing a portrait of the individual involved.
Ventura Foreman contructing the Hemp Slub flags at their London studio.
After 3 months in the sun, wind and rain, the beautifully weathered and aged Hemp slub flags were reworked by Ventura Foreman into jackets, shirts, trousers, hats, bags and face masks, sold through Kiosk N1C. All proceeds from the sale of the works were donated to arts-based grants which support young people in accessing higher education.
The project was co-curated with Rebecca Heald.
Company
Lauren Godfrey, Rebecca Heald, Ventura Foreman, Central Saint Martins, STORE Projects, Lara Pain, Kemi Ajose, Abigail Weston, Kiosk N1C, a-r-c-s and Fabulous Rigging.
Place
King’s Cross for King’s Cross Central Partnership Ltd & Related Argent.
Photography
John Sturrock & a-r-c-s
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