Next – Project
Long Distance Press, Hand Over Hand, 2025 (install). PSQ, London. Photo Dan Weill. © Paddington Square.
Tanner Lane Rotational Public Art Commission
Curated by The Showroom, in partnership with Lacuna
Partnering with The Showroom, a contemporary public art space specialising in community engagement and based near Paddington Square, the programme supports the commissioning of new public artworks on the topic of ‘care’ by a selection of socially-engaged London-based contemporary artists. Each project is realised with community engagement and offers a new model for exploring current cultural themes in a safe, inclusive and engaging environment.
The artworks are presented for one year between 2024 and 2026 on a custom-made billboard, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop – the studio behind the PSQ development – and situated on Praed Street between Paddington Square and St Mary’s Hospital. The project invites a wide audience of visitors, workers and local residents to enjoy and engage with thoughtful contemporary art practices.
Long Distance Press, Hand Over Hand, 2025 (install). PSQ, London. Photo Dan Weill. © Paddington Square.
2025 EDITIONWhat can we achieve together but not alone? Hand Over Hand (2025) is the second iteration of the annual Tanner Lane Rotational Public Art commission. Drawing on the history of the Paddington Square site as a former postal sorting office and the neighbouring St Mary’s Hospital, artists Adam Shield and Thomas Whittle, a.k.a. Long Distance Press (LDP), examine the role of mail art, exchange, and community collaboration. The site’s proximity to Paddington Station inspired ideas of travel and transience, networks and gateways to other places. Focusing on drawing as a means to investigate, develop, and communicate, participants from The Showroom’s neighbourhood came together with LDP in a series of workshops to exchange ideas about care. The workshops began by creating images that evolved through drawing, discussion, and redrawing over the course of the sessions. Artworks were created on postcards by collaborators between sessions. These were posted to The Showroom and used as part of the evolving, multi-layered creative process. In an increasingly digital world, this hands-on, slow, tactile form of communication culminated in a series of printed collages that were directly bound into a book, asking us to consider the nature of care, collective work and the power of community. Workshop collaborators included members of 60 Penfold Hub, Sunflower Coop, Abdul Magid Educational Trust Group, Paddington Development Trust, MEWSo and collaborators from Kay Abude’s mural commission. The work, created by many, is indicative of The Showroom’s long-standing commitment to collaborating with constituents and community groups in the local neighbourhood and beyond, while connecting with an evolving ecology of trans-local, trans-disciplinary networks. |
Long Distance Press, Hand Over Hand, 2025 (install). PSQ, London. Pictured with Orange Yellow Hermit (2022) by Ugo Rondinone (sculpture on left). Photo Dan Weill. © Paddington Square.
“We have met incredible people throughout this project who collaborate, care and support each other in many different aspects of their lives. The time we spent together, sharing our practice and discussing the many ways they come together, is the foundation of this final artwork. We hope that the artwork in some way represents the people, groups and ethos of those we worked with; ‘two people together achieve more than double’. In times of division and polarisation we hope the artwork succeeds in attempting to highlight how important kindness and collaboration is, not just within art but in daily life, and work.”
— Adam Shield and Thomas Whittle, Long Distance Press
Long Distance Press, Hand Over Hand, 2025 (install). PSQ, London. Photo Dan Weill. © Paddington Square.
About the site:
Paddington Square is London’s new quarter for work, culture, retail and dining at the heart of Paddington’s regeneration, with a 14-storey crystalline building designed by the leading architecture practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. It also includes a new Bakerloo Line entrance for the London Underground, west London’s highest rooftop dining experience and a 1.35-acre public square, providing a world-class welcome to London for local, regional and international visitors.
Paddington Square, London (designed by RPBW), 2024. Video Tapio Snellman.
About PSQ public art programme:
The Paddington Square Public Art Programme is developed as part of the Section 106 Condition (a compulsory planning requirement of urban developments in the UK), in collaboration with St. Mary’s Hospital, local businesses and residential associations, with strong engagement from Westminster City Council.
Curated by Lacuna, it represents a major investment in the public realm by Great Western Developments, who commissioned the RPBW-designed urban plan and feature building. It showcases newly commissioned, site-specific artworks by critically acclaimed contemporary artists with no prior permanent public art projects in London.
The Tanner Lane Rotational Public Art Commission is a collaboration between Lacuna and The Showroom, a local non-profit arts organisation, committed to community engagement and supporting the work of emerging and mid-career UK-based visual artists. The partnership began in 2024 with a new work by Kathrin Böhm and continues in 2026 with the presentation of a new commission by performance and visual artist, Harold Offeh. The wider Paddington Square Public Art Programme also includes permanent works by Ugo Rondinone, Pae White and Catherine Yass, which opened to the public in 2024.