Catherine Yass: Public Art, London, 2024

Tanner Lane Permanent Public Art Commission

LaunchED Summer 2024

Catherine Yass’ NHS Swimmers (2021–2024) at Paddington Square occupies a 24-metre-long wall at the neighbouring St Mary’s Hospital and presents a large-scale collaborative photographic installation, featuring and celebrating the UK’s National Health Service workers. The image is constructed from over 200 photographs taken of ten NHS workers swimming in isolation during the Covid pandemic between 2021 and 2022. The composition is inspired by Giotto’s angels in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy.

The participants were selected from an open call organised with Imperial College Healthcare Charity and represent the rich diversity of staff at St Mary’s Hospital. They were brought together for the first time in print. Made from sustainable vinyl, the artwork is on permanent view for ten years at a busy intersection where ambulances and taxis deliver hospital patients and workers.

NHS Swimmers is Yass’ first public realm commission in London and one of three new permanent public artworks at Paddington Square. The commission was based on an invited-competition organised by Lacuna and selected by an independent jury of experts, in consultation with representatives of local businesses and residential community groups.

“Ten NHS workers are swimming underwater, overhead down Tanner Lane. They flow down this narrow road between Saint Mary’s Hospital and Renzo Piano Studio’s new office building, reflecting the stream of people moving through to catch trains and get to work. Photographed on large format sheet film, over 200 images are overlaid onto blue negatives to create a sense of movement and a deep blue space that leaves us floating down the street between water and sky. The Swimmers were selected to correspond to the diversity, gender and age of the NHS workers in Saint Mary’s. Photographed between Covid restrictions, freedom of movement was a fabulous thing, and the break from the pressure of working in the hospital felt liberating. Up on the high wall the NHS workers appear to be flying as well as swimming, hovering over our heads like angels caring for the people below.”

– Catherine Yass

Paddington Square is central London’s new working, shopping and dining quarter, with a 14-storey crystalline building designed by the leading architecture studio, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The development also includes a new entrance to London Underground, west London’s highest rooftop dining experience and a 1.35-acre public square, providing a world-class welcome to London for millions of domestic and international travellers passing through Paddington and Heathrow Express every year.

The Paddington Square Public Art Programme was developed in the framework of Section 106 – a compulsory urban planning requirement in the UK – and produced in collaboration with St. Mary’s Hospital, local businesses and residential associations, and with strong engagement from Westminster City Council. It presents newly commissioned, site-specific artworks by critically acclaimed contemporary artists with no prior permanent projects in London’s public realm.

The Paddington Square Public Art Programme was commissioned by Great Western Developments and curated by Lacuna.