Dr David Shearing's "The Rising Sun: Experience Romford in a new light"
This July, Central’s Dr David Shearing has taken over the historic marketplace in Romford with a unique interactive piece of public art, The Rising Sun.
The Rising Sun is a striking light-responsive installation, a structure designed in the shape of a pub, which stands proudly in the centre of the square, in sight of the marketplaces’ three pubs. Inside, visitors are bathed in a haze of light that follows the movements of the sun. The magical and evocative space is filled with the town’s familiar local voices, telling moving stories which map their life journeys of arrival, living, loving and longing.
Dr Shearing is a Lecturer in Performance at Central as well as an award-winning artist known for his immersive multimedia environments and spaces and a two-time winner of the World Stage Design awards for Installation (in 2013 and 2017). He leads the artist collective Variable Matter, which aims to bring about change: environmental, political and social by creating intimate, and at times spectacular, art and performance to engage audiences both physically and conceptually using video, sound and organic materials. Variable Matter believes in the power of design to inspire new forms of connection and experience and to better promote social and environmental justice.
Dr Shearing, who is Romford-born, said of the installation:
“The Rising Sun is a snapshot of everyday people, shining a light on hidden stories of the local community, not the stereotypes that are often portrayed in this unique and changing outer East London town. Pubs are at the heart of our communities and can serve as a place of conversation. I hope this piece of art will encourage debate about what’s possible in our town centres by building a sense of destination and pride.
Inspiring and unusual art can animate our public spaces and help to bring us together. Like so many town centres, Romford is a different place following Covid, with the loss of many major retailers, and a different night-time economy landscape. I wanted to create accessible art that would inspire a sense placemaking.”
The installation has also been designed to explore and celebrate the complexities and changing identities of East London and Essex. The borough of Havering has the 4th lowest level of public arts engagement in London, placing it firmly in the bottom third of places nationally. The Rising Sun installation, which is commissioned in partnership with Romford Business Improvement District (BID), Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and supported by Havering Changing, a consortium of local organisations, is part of a wider progressive strategy being undertaken in the borough to trial radical new ideas to engage local people in arts and culture in different ways. The research impact of the project is supported by Central.
The installation is available to a wider audience online via an interactive digital website in which viewers are able to click on and ‘eavesdrop’ into the many captured voices. The online binaural soundscape has been built in partnership with artist/composer James Bulley and Rabbit Hole, a creative agency known for their leading digital work for Coldplay.
The Rising Sun can be experienced daily until Saturday 30 July, from 8am – 8pm in Romford Market or online. Entrance is free and pre-booking is not required. Visit the official website of the installation for more details.