KCAW | Public Art | High Street Windows

KCAW x HIGH STREET WINDOWS

KCAW is proud to present HIGH STREET WINDOWS, a series of visual art commissions by Kensington and Chelsea Council.

The project features site-specific window installations across Kensington, activating local high streets through imaginative interventions by contemporary artists. Taking over vacant store windows, High Street Windows aims to showcase artists’ practices and engage visitors to the High Street, in a visual celebration of culture and creativity, turning vacant spaces into pop-up contemporary artworks.

Commissioned by Kensington and Chelsea Council, the installations encourage visibility of arts and culture unique to the borough, increasing positive perceptions of a vibrant and diverse area of London steeped in history and bustling with creativity, injecting creativity and promoting cultural engagement for a more sustainable high street.

The first sites feature new works by London-based artists Fiona Grady, Ian Kirkpatrick, the Dotmaster, Gala Bell, Alexander Ikhide, LUAP and Orlanda Broom.

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XANADU BY ORLANDA BROOM

– 155 High Street Kensington

Two artworks by Orland Broom are installed as the latest editions to KCAW x High Street Windows. They depict wild places that are uninhabited and timeless, offering a glimpse of paradise that would ultimately ensnare and/or is potentially lost to us. The title of one of is ‘Xanadu’, references Romantic poet Coleridge and his poem ‘Kubla Khan’ and the second artwork, displayed next door, is titled ‘Wisp’ - an abstract form in monochrome and reminiscent of a ghostly presence or cloud.

Broom’s landscapes represent re-imagined places which are celebratory, and in some senses, a rose-tinted view of the natural world. The surface joyousness is tempered by an uneasy sense of abandonment.

XANADU by ORLANDA BROOM

– 155 High Street Kensington

Broom’s painting practice takes two distinct forms, both presented here: lush, exotic landscapes and abstract pieces. Connecting these bodies of work is a strong sense of colour, references to organic forms and the exploration of the mediums she works with.

Broom’s landscapes represent re-imagined places which are celebratory, and in some senses, a rose-tinted view of the natural world. The surface joyousness is tempered by an uneasy sense of abandonment. Broom depicts wild places that are uninhabited and timeless, offering a glimpse of paradise that would ultimately ensnare and/or is potentially lost to us.