Lewisham is London Borough of Culture in 2022, and already the programme is hotting up — with the promise of colour-changing trees, a D/deaf hip hop music drama, and a cafe populated by concrete customers.
A slew of innovative artistic projects from D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent artists has just been announced for next year; independent filmmaker Bim Ajadi's Here/Not Here is a live performed hip hop drama exploring the relationship between British Sign Language, Krump dance, football and Visual Vernacular.
Disabled-led audio-visual innovators D-Fuse will showcase Respira-Trees, an installation of trees that change colour as air pollution levels shift. On the theme of trees, Teresa Howard's GHOSTWOOD is an immersive virtual reality experience that'll bring an ancient oak woodland to life.
Sanctuary Café, created by "unashamedly blind" artist David Johnson will invite visitors to sit alongside and socialise with life-sized concrete cast human figures.
In all, eight new projects for London Borough of Culture 2022 have been awarded funding from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who says: "The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the artistic community and it’s important that we provide opportunities for these immensely talented artists to develop and demonstrate their work."
