Gathering

London, 2022

Client: Crafts Council

Materials: Fedrigoni Gold Paper, Steel Cable

Commissioned by the Crafts Council for Collect at Somerset House, Gathering responds to the vertical drama of the five-storey Stamp Staircase's architecture. Conceived after prolonged Covid isolation, this large-scale, bespoke origami artwork explores collective presence - how individual forms create shared experience. The title works two ways: each abstract unit is hand-folded, pinched and gathered by us with machine-scoring, before multiplying into 125 shimmering elements — a 10m x 3.8m x 0.4m structure weighing under 35kg — while visitors climbing the staircase find their own moment of physical gathering. As the gold forms shifted with light and movement, from flock-like motion to reflective stillness, they invited mindful, immersive, personal interpretation.

Somerset House's Grade I listing brought real technical restriction: fixings had to hang the piece without touching the building's fabric, agreed with the Somerset House team and conservation officers on site. Suspended some 25 metres up, the piece was assembled and hoisted like a sail, in 2m sections, using sail-rigging technology — all while the stairwell space stayed open to the public, backed by a full health and safety document.