London-based Nigerian Artist Slawn’s Site-Specific Study on Hope, ‘GONE?’, to be Showcased on Global Screens

Posted by Donna on 1st December, 2023
Filed under: From the Street

The upcoming launch of GONE? is a site-specific study on the theme of hope by Nigerian-born, London-based artist Slawn, in collaboration with the public art program CIRCA.

Photo: Leroy Boateng © CIRCA

The project will be showcased on screens worldwide, including in Accra, Nairobi, Abidjan, and Lagos, as well as in London’s Piccadilly Circus, Milan, Seoul, Tokyo, Berlin, and Los Angeles. Scheduled to start on Wednesday, 6 December, the project aims to halt billboard screens worldwide at 20:23 local time until New Year’s Eve.

Photo: Leroy Boateng © CIRCA

Slawn‘s work is a fusion of street art and abstract expressionism, focusing on exploring issues of politics, race, and identity. The 23-year-old artist, a cult icon, street artist, and skateboarder favoured by Virgil Abloh and Skepta, has gained much recognition for his large-scale canvases that blend cartoonish-like pop figures and bold, colourful forms.

In creating this project, the artist locked himself inside an empty shop in Piccadilly Circus, London, spray-painting directly onto bespoke cut perspex sheets, scaled to fit eleven of their global screen locations. By referencing Picasso and The Pharcyde, Slawn achieves an inward/outward illusion between the artist and the viewer. With a different painting created for each city, the artist gradually removes himself from the picture, indirectly asking the world: ‘Has all hope GONE?’

Photo: Leroy Boateng © CIRCA

The launch of GONE? marks the culmination of a year that started in January with His Holiness the Dalai Lama responding to the manifesto ‘Hope: The Art of Reading What Is Not Yet Written.’ Slawn’s emergence on the global stage as a beacon of togetherness is a welcome addition to the public art program. The final paintings will be revealed during an exhibition in Spring 2024.