Yuko Shiraishi’s Canal Wall

A work commissioned by Peer and Shoreditch Trust
for Regent’s Canal

Canal Wall makes a simple and effective impact on a disused light industrial building along a section of the Regent’s Canal that was undergoing considerable regeneration. The Regent’s Canal has undergone a gradual transformation over the past several years from a relatively unvisited, disregarded and often-dangerous open space to an increasingly enjoyed and important route across north and east London for pedestrians and cyclists.

The site, an 80 metre long brick wall, is to be demolished for redevelopment within the next two to years, so it was necessary to come up with an artistic intervention that was not costly and could be easily maintained. The artist, Yuko Shiraishi, had worked with colour on a number of projects with architecture, including BBC White City the Children’s Ward at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital, and at a Psychiatric Hospital in Japan. Her simple and confident approach to the brief was to use the transformative power of colour.