Wednesday 1 June 2022

Pride Month at Canary Wharf: Murals, Movies and Comic Strips – 01.06.22

  • Three murals by artist Lothar Götz installed around the Wharf to celebrate Pride month
  • Comic strips celebrating queer culture available at Estate’s Short Story Stations
  • Pride Movie Nights taking place at Union Square, Wood Wharf, showcasing LGBTQ+ films

Three bold, colourful murals have been installed around Canary Wharf to celebrate Pride month. German-born artist Lothar Götz has transformed Crossrail Place, Reuters Plaza and the Riverside steps with his abstract, geometric artwork in Pride’s rainbow colours which will be in place until the end of June.

The murals are part of Canary Wharf’s month-long celebration of queer culture that will see a series of specially selected movies shown on the big screen at the new Union Square, located in Wood Wharf.

Moviegoers just need to bring a smartphone and a pair of headphones before grabbing a deckchair and a takeaway from nearby Mercato or Emilia’s Crafted Pasta. Films will be screening every Wednesday including Pride, Brokeback Mountain and The Birdcage.  

The Estate’s Short Story Stations – vending machines that usually dispense pieces of writing that take a few minutes to read – are printing comic strips for the first time. Trans and queer creative Fox Fisher has teamed up with comedian and filmmaker Lewis Hancox to create the new strips to mark Pride month.

Illustrator Fox Fisher commented: “Lewis and I are thrilled to see our new comic strips being dispensed from the wharf’s Short Story Stations for the month. The print offs have never had pictures on them before, so we hope they take a few people by surprise, and prompt them to think about why we celebrate this important month.”

Artist Lothar Götz said: “It’s great to have my work be part of the month’s Pride celebrations, knowing so many people are going to see it brightening up the steps and walls around Canary Wharf.”

Pride Movie Nights – 7pm every Wednesday, in Union Square

  • Wednesday 1 June, Pride (15) – Based on a true story, Pride depicts a group of lesbian and gay activists who raised money to help families affected by the British miners’ strike.
  • Wednesday 8 June, The Birdcage (15) – A cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée’s right-wing parents.
  • Wednesday 15 June, Carol (15) – An aspiring photographer develops a relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.
  • Wednesday 22 June, Brokeback Mountain (15) – Ennis and Jack are two shepherds who develop an emotional relationship. It becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.
  • Wednesday 29 June, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (15) – Two drag queen performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.

Pride month is celebrated each year to honour the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The riots had a huge impact on gay rights around the world, and the ongoing celebrations are about acceptance, equality, honouring the work of LGBTQ+ people and raising awareness of issues affecting the community.

Click here for more information about Pride Month at Canary Wharf

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Press Office
Canary Wharf Group plc
T: 020 7418 2166
E: pressoffice@canarywharf.com

Notes to Editors

About the Art Installations

  • Electro-Rainbow, Crossrail Place

In Crossrail Place you will find Electro-Rainbow, a site-specific piece which responds to the giant glass panels that make up the walls surface. The installation takes inspiration from the Progress Pride Rainbow Flag, incorporating them and adapting the stripes into a shifting rainbow of coloured triangles within the square panels. The artist also sees the work akin to the floor of a disco or club, with the patterns and colours dancing across the surface like rays of light on a dancefloor. This provides an echo of the importance of club culture in the development of LGBTQ+ identities.

  • Jump, Reuters Plaza Steps

Jump celebrates movement, responding both to the curving rise of the steps and to the idea of the progression and achievements of gay rights in the context of the LGBTQ+ Pride in London festival.  It also represents the jumps that LGBTQ+ people still have to make in their own lives – of coming out or of jumping over the ongoing hurdles of recognition, equality and acceptance in many environments and social situations.

The artist sees the sets of steps like two grand stairs leading up to a ballroom – like the stairs on which Cinderella ran down from the ball and on which she lost her glass slipper, with the coloured shapes akin to the pattern on a technicolour version of a red carpet.  

  • Upbeat, Riverside Steps

The staircase is divided into three faceted coloured lozenges or triangles arranged into squares, the colours coming from the Progress Pride Rainbow flag. Götz imagines the work as a technicolour version of a red carpet, laid out as an upbeat celebration of all the progress made in LGBTQ+ rights – and almost like the colours on a disco dance floor.

The triangular, lozenged pattern also picks up on the forms of the surrounding architecture, visible as you ascend the steps: from the triangular rooftop of One Canada Square, designed by architect César Pelli to the the criss-cross filigree façade of the more recent Newfoundland residential tower designed by Horden Cherry Lee Architects.

About the artists

  • Lothar Götz – Lothar is a German, gay artist who works and lives in London and Berlin. He studied at the Royal College of London where he has a master’s in Painting and a bachelors from Fachhochschule Aachen in Visual Communication. His talent has led him to have work exhibited at Holden Gallery in Manchester Metropolitan University, Leeds City Art Gallery and Sunken Gallery in Belfast.
  • Fox Fisher – Fox is a pansexual award-winning graphics designer, author, and filmmaker. He has been teaching and making art for over ten years, focusing on political purposes to educate on LGBTQIA+ rights. They founded My Genderation, a film project which has created 100 films, through celebrating intersectional trans lives and experiences. 
  • Lewis Hancox – Lewis is a comedy writer and actor. He creates digital comedy sketches, in which he plays a variety of characters. In June, he is going to release a graphic memoir called Welcome to St Hell: My trans teen misadventure, about growing up as a transgender teenager and how he got to where he is today.

About Canary Wharf Group:

Canary Wharf Group (CWG) is the developer of the largest urban regeneration project in Europe. CWG develops, manages and currently owns interests in approximately 9 million square feet of mixed-use space and over 1,100 Build to Rent apartments. 

CWG is the largest sustainable developer in the UK and also excels operationally as it purchases 100% electricity from renewable sources since 2012 and zero waste to landfill since 2009. 

CWG has created a 24/7 city where people can live, work and thrive on the Canary Wharf estate and enjoy all the benefits: great transport links, access to green spaces and waterside living; and a wide range of amenities including an award-winning arts and events programme. Canary Wharf’s retail offering comprises over 300 shops, including grocery stores, pharmacies, health clubs, bars and restaurants, all within 15 minutes’ walk.

The Company’s current £2bn construction activity and pipeline includes more than 500k sq ft NIA of commercial properties and over 2,300 new homes for sale and rent.

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