A Repurposed Sign / Event.

We have worked with Turf Projects– a local arts organisation in Croydon from their inception, first as part of the Special Advisory Team (SAT) to Mayor of London then as designers for several maps, and as artist’s contributing to their public poster project, Fungus Press.

We were asked to make an announcement of a move to a bigger premises, specifically from one meanwhile space on the periphery of a shopping mall to a new three story ex-carpet display shop inside the Whitgift Shopping Mall. This upscaling reminded us of the strategies of the hermit crab, the economy of re-using empty forms and allowing the organism to grow.

There was a latent possibility in a previous SAT project, a sign for a cat rescue made with the Outer London Fund (OLF). This fund was implemented by the Mayor of London after the Mary Portas Review that suggested high streets be fixed up to encourage use and investment. We had observed that while there were good things about OLF it was inherently superficial and the businesses identified for a facelift might have benefitted from some structural support or business advice.

Cat Rescue closed down and was in the process of being demolished when we dismounted (Rescued!) the sign, re mounting it in Croydon on the same day, now reconfigured to read CRUSTACE, a permanent and surrealist addition to the street.

At the opening event we introduced the new sign with a general talk about shopping Malls followed by a screening of Jean Painlevé's The Hermit Crab (1929). Plus live music by artist’s in residence, Right Idea Wrong Machine.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/25239