A two-metre-tall distorting mirror impressed by considered one of London’s most iconic river crossings is about to go beneath the hammer this month, and it is turning extra than simply heads.
Titled Conversion, the piece has been created by model author Nick Carson and design consultancies NB Studio and SEA as a part of 26 Bridges, a artistic mission from writers’ organisation 26 for Bloomsbury Pageant 2025. The art work will probably be auctioned on 16 October, with proceeds funding a specialist medical nurse for pores and skin most cancers sufferers at College Faculty London Hospitals (UCLH).
At first look, Conversion is a placing object in its personal proper. The custom-made mirror stands 200cm tall, crafted in France by Julien Vidame of Vidame Éditions. What’s written on it and the way these phrases behave is what makes this piece really particular, although.
Working down the centre is a palindromic poem, written by Nick, that shifts which means relying on which manner it is learn. Phrases like “vice”, “imaginative and prescient”, “muse” and “divine” morph from sacred to secular, reflecting the historic and cultural evolution of the realm across the Millennium Bridge, the positioning that impressed the work.
“The title operates on a number of ranges,” says Nick. “There’s spiritual conversion, from Catholicism to Protestantism, and particular person religious expertise.
“There’s architectural conversion – Bankside Energy Station changing into Tate Trendy – and there is the broader transformation of Bankside from a historic den of iniquity to a cultural hub.”
The mirror’s playful distortions nod to the bridge’s authentic nickname (“the wobbly bridge”) whereas the typesetting itself mimics the move of the Thames, with a meandering gutter operating down the center of the textual content. As a result of the floor is uneven, conventional screen-printing wasn’t an choice. As a substitute, vinyl specialists Omni Color painstakingly utilized the phrases in matt-silver lettering, giving the poem a fluid, reflective high quality.
The collaboration between Nick and the 2 studios was no accident. Each SEA and NB Studio are equidistant from Millennium Bridge on reverse banks of the river, making a neat geographical symmetry that mirrors the duality explored within the textual content.
“The mission is all about connection and shifting views,” says Bryan Edmondson, artistic director at SEA. “It is a reminder that which means is not fastened – it relies on the place you are standing.”
Alan Dye, artistic director at NB Studio, agrees: “We liked the problem of translating a poetic concept right into a bodily piece. The distortions, the typography, even the manufacturing course of – the whole lot turned a part of the metaphor.”
Conversion is considered one of 26 artworks commissioned for the 26 Bridges initiative, every created by pairing a author with a visible artist or designer and assigning them considered one of London’s Thames crossings. The mission started with The Nice London Bridges Stroll in September 2024, which raised sufficient cash to fund a medical nurse specialist at UCLH’s Cotton Rooms. This 12 months’s public sale goals to safe funding for a second 12 months of that very important position, serving to sufferers navigate the transition from analysis to therapy.
The public sale is already reside on-line, culminating in a live-streamed occasion on 16 October. And for many who wish to see Conversion in particular person, it’ll even be offered at 26’s annual Wordstock convention on 18 October at Conway Corridor.
For Nick, a former design journalist turned model author, the mission represents the most effective of each worlds, merging creativity with real-world impression. “It is about utilizing phrases and design not simply to impress thought, however to do some tangible good,” he says.
Whether or not learn left to proper or proper to left, sacred or secular, Conversion provides a poetic reminder of the ability of perspective and the way creativity can bridge divides—whether or not they’re literal or metaphorical—within the service of one thing greater.
