Unveiling Yesterday, Tomorrow: a New Artwork at Brent Cross Town

Artist and illustrator Steven Wilson’s new artwork Yesterday, Tomorrow is a heartfelt ode to the people and stories that have shaped Brent Cross Town. Unveiled today in Claremont Park, this celebratory public work has been created with the community in mind, many of whom contributed their memories of the area to its design.

Visitors to the park are invited to spot recognisable faces and places among the abstracted forms and vibrant colours of the piece, including Cricklewood Aerodrome, the Beast of Barnet, Clitterhouse Farm, Zadie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Hendon FC, suffragette Gladice Georgina Keevil and more.

Following in the footsteps of artists Lakwena, Hanna Benihoud and Annu Kilpeläinen, Brighton-based Wilson is the latest creative to lend his artistic vision to Brent Cross Town. The continued commissioning of public art is central to enriching the lives of our local residents and enlivening the town. It is also a subject close to Wilson’s heart, having grown up just a few miles from Brent Cross Town in Enfield.

We caught up with the artist ahead of the unveiling of the artwork to find out more about his creative practice and exactly what it means to him to create this work.

You’ve been an artist for more than two decades. How did you kick-start your career in art?

When I was younger I moved to Brighton to study illustration at the university here. Brighton has a very experimental type course that is more based around different ways of thinking and working methods. After that I set up as an illustrator and was on the cusp of analog and digital. I used to go down to Borders, the bookshop, and pick up all the magazines and I could see that all of the commissioned work at that time was very digital. So I taught myself Photoshop and Illustrator and a few other bits of software. That’s when I started getting a bit of recognition. It took me about two years, but that’s basically where it all started. I got my first job for The Guardian, and then I did an album cover for a band called Dub Pistols and off the back of that I got a poster from MTV. Then I got an agent and I’ve been busy ever since.

How did you get involved in the project at Brent Cross Town?

Fieldwork Facility got in touch because they were looking for an artist that knew the area very well, and I grew up near Enfield, which isn’t far from Brent Cross Town. That’s why I wanted to be involved. I lived there until I was 18, and the content of the artwork is based around stuff from the local area and different stories from the local community.

What was the process behind making sure the project was authentic to the local community?

We did a lot of research before I started making the designs, including questionnaires to different people who live in and around Brent Cross Town, so that they could share stories they remembered from the past.

How did you go about incorporating local people’s memories and stories into the artwork?

The biggest challenge, from my point of view, was taking this long list of things people had shared with us and figuring out what style and aesthetic I could use as a vehicle to actually bring all those things together without looking really disjointed. So I condensed each story down to a very graphic, simple icon, and then and then we used some abstract shapes to tie them all in so that nothing had too much weight over anything else. Some stories obviously stand out more than others, but I wanted a bit of abstraction, partly because it looks nice, but also so it wasn’t too obvious, because then there’s a bit of hierarchy in terms of how you view it. If you’re going to the area every day, you’ll discover more of the hidden elements the more times you see it. One day, you might walk past and notice two or three of the stories that are in there, and another day you go past and there’s another bit that you hadn’t noticed before.

What’s your personal connection to Brent Cross Town and the surrounding area?

I used to go there quite a lot as a kid to the shopping centre when I was growing up. My mum would take me there because it was probably the nearest and one of the only big shopping centres that was built at the time.

What have you enjoyed about working on this project?

It’s in an area that hasn’t necessarily got loads of actual art galleries, so it’s nice that artwork is being put where local people can access art without having to go to central London. That’s one of the things that made me really excited about doing, because when I was a kid, where I grew up, I didn’t have any experience of any different types of art or any kind of visual culture at all. I think public art brings a bit of colour to an area, and makes it sort of unique. The main thing I like about it is the fact that this is probably the only time that I’ve done something that’s actually linked back to the area where I grew up.

What do you hope people get from experiencing your work as part of their day-to-day life?

Just intrigue really, because it’s a layered piece and I want people to feel that sense of discovery. It’s located in a park where there will be lots of children, and kids have got that natural intrigue and I think they will be looking and trying to find different things in it. I just hope it draws people in a little bit and can hold their attention for a bit longer.

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