Published on
October 8, 2021
A new large-scale public art commission is now on display on one of London’s largest and most iconic marketplaces.
Remedy by Sian Fan was unveiled on Friday 1 October 2021. The artwork, 20 metres long in size, will be on show for 12 months on the building façade of the New Covent Garden Flower Market on Nine Elms Lane, viewable 24 hours a day to everyone living or working in the area or passing through.
The work is the final edition of the Vitrine art commission, a series which has taken place over the past three years, following previous works BLOOM! by BLKBRD Collective and Still Life Citrus by artist Eyal Granit.
Fan is an artist living and working in London, whose work combines movement, the female body and technology to explore embodiment, spirituality, and human experience in the digital age.
The artist, Sian Fan said: “I feel incredibly proud and honoured to get to create Remedy for the New Covent Garden Market Vitrine. The work seeks to capture the breathtaking variety of the entire market, from fruits, to vegetables, to flowers. It digitally fuses these elements together as a meditative expression of connection, curiosity and colour.”
Remedy celebrates the resilience, variety, and importance of the New Covent Garden Market, as we all emerge from our digitally mediated lockdown lives. Using photogrammetric scanning the work utilises computer-generated textures from fruits, vegetables, and flowers sourced from the market, abstracting these images to create a luscious cacophony of colour and form.
The work samples scans of over 30 items of produce across the breadth of the market’s offerings, including Romanesco broccoli, Shimeji mushrooms, Japanese anemones and calla lilies. Recorded during visits to the market, the artist was inspired by the unique and unusual produce on offer and wanted to capture the full spectrum of colour and textures available.
For the first time, a QR code will be installed alongside the work, which will allow viewers to discover Remedy come to life in an immersive moving image piece.
Initiated and funded by VINCI St. Modwen (VSM) in association with Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA) and realised in collaboration with UK wide contemporary art festival Art Night – the New Covent Garden Market Vitrine Art Commission has provided a much-needed platform for emerging and early career artists to gain both experience and exposure in a London context as well as showcase exciting, new artwork to a wider community.
Rob Williams, Managing Director, Major Projects, St. Modwen said: We are extremely proud to have initiated the Vitrine Art Commission, providing a new platform for upcoming artists to gain exposure and bringing exciting public art to the Nine Elms regeneration area. Over the years we have celebrated the produce, diversity and community the market represents and, in the final commission with Sian Fan’s exciting work, exploring the market’s connection with the digital age. It is a fitting finale.”
Jo Breare, General Manager, Covent Garden Market Authority said: “Remedy is a celebration of the variety and vibrancy of the fresh produce that is sold at New Covent Garden Market by a community of more than 150 expert traders, some of whose families have been feeding and flowering London for generations. The Vitrine Art Commission has been a great opportunity for the Nine Elms community and all those who visit the area to get a taste of what makes the market so special, while showcasing up-and-coming artists. We’d like to thank our redevelopment partners and commissioners of his installation series, VINCI St. Modwen, together with Art Night, for making this possible and for involving the market and our traders in this initiative.”
Remedy by Sian Fan was selected by a judging panel consisting of: Aida Esposito, Founder and Director of creative thinking and Lead Creative Strategist for VINCI St Modwen; Anna Skladmann, Visual Artist; Charlotte Brooks, Art Curator, RHS Lindley Library; Alex Rinsler, Wandsworth Council Strategic Lead for Culture Nine Elms; Lynn Parker, Collection Curator, Kew Gardens; Josef Vere-Bujnowski, Construction Manager, St. Modwen; Zarina Rossheart, Project Curator for Art Night. The selection process was held in consultation with representation from market traders and CGMA.
About New Covent Garden Market
New Covent Garden Market is the UK’s largest wholesale fruit, vegetable, and flower market. Created in Covent Garden almost 350 years ago it provides chefs and florists of London and far beyond with a diverse and vibrant selection of fresh produce and flowers. Four decades ago it moved to its current location in Nine Elms to continue its story where it is currently undergoing a redevelopment by VINCI St. Modwen to ensure a sustainable future as a leading, thriving wholesale market. It is home to 175 unique businesses, many of which have been passed down through generations and are deeply committed to serving London with the widest choice of the best quality, freshest fruit, vegetables and flowers.
About the regeneration of New Covent Garden Market
The joint venture of VINCI St. Modwen (VSM) in partnership with the Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA) is delivering a landmark multi-phased project, the largest scheme in the Nine Elms regeneration area on the South Bank of the River Thames.
New Covent Garden Market, London’s original – and the UK’s largest – fresh produce market, lies at the heart of Nine Elms. The market operated on three sites totalling 57 acres, and these are being consolidated onto a single, state-of-the-art 37 acre site releasing 20 acres of land for development.
These 20 acres will be transformed into new high quality residential-led mixed-use schemes, benefiting from riverside views and comprising approximately 3,000 new homes including 600 affordable homes, 135,000 sq ft of commercial accommodation and 100,000 sq ft of retail, leisure and new community facilities, including shops, cafés and restaurants. It will provide around 2,000 new jobs for this area of London’s Nine Elms, in addition to the 2,500 retained jobs in the market.
This development is set to be a catalyst for change, creating jobs and attracting investment with the delivery of a world-class development that will be a major influence on the area’s economic, social and cultural regeneration.
