What can we achieve together but not alone? How do we care about each other? Why do we come together? Why do we care together?

Hand Over Hand is the second iteration of The Showroom’s annual Tanner Lane billboard commission. Drawing on the history of the Paddington Square site as a former postal sorting office and the neighbouring St Mary’s Hospital, artists Adam Shield and Thomas Whittle aka Long Distance Press (LDP) examine the role of mail art, exchange, and community collaboration. The site’s proximity to Paddington Station inspired ideas of travel and transience, networks and gateways to other places.

Focusing on drawing as a means to investigate, develop, and communicate, participants from The Showroom’s neighbourhood came together with LDP in a series of workshops to exchange ideas about care. The workshops began by creating images that evolved through drawing, discussion, and redrawing over the course of the sessions. Artworks were created on postcards by collaborators between sessions. These were posted to The Showroom and used as part of the evolving, multi-layered creative process. In an increasingly digital world, this hands-on, slow, tactile form of communication culminated in a series of printed collages that were directly bound into a book, asking us to consider the nature of care, collective work and the power of community.

Workshop collaborators included members of 60 Penfold Hub, Sunflower Coop, Abdul Magid Educational Trust Group, Paddington Development Trust, MEWSo and collaborators from Kay Abude’s mural commission. The work, created by many, is indicative of The Showroom’s long-standing commitment to collaborating with constituents and community groups in our local neighbourhood and beyond, while connecting with an evolving ecology of trans-local, trans-disciplinary networks.

“We have met incredible people throughout this project who collaborate, care and support each other in many different aspects of their lives. The time we spent together, sharing our practice and discussing the many ways they come together, is the foundation of this final artwork. We hope that the artwork in some way represents the people, groups and ethos of those we worked with; ‘two people together achieve more than double’. In times of division and polarisation we hope the artwork succeeds in attempting to highlight how important kindness and collaboration is, not just within art but in daily life, and work.” Adam Shield and Thomas Whittle / Long Distance Press

The installation is the second of three iterations of the Tanner Lane Wall Rotational Public Art Commission at Paddington Square. This annual cycle has been commissioned by Great Western Developments and curated by Lacuna as part of the wider Paddington Square Public Art Programme. The previous iteration was 'Why do we care about art?' by Kathrin Bohm, and next year’s collaborative commission will be by Harold Offeh.

“When we were considering the overall public art programme it was very important to us that it involved the community. The partnership with The Showroom, which is local to Paddington Square, provided this significant link and I couldn’t be happier with the works produced to date. ‘Hand Over Hand’ speaks to themes we are all negotiating and I’m excited to see how the public respond to it.” Stella Ioannou, Founding Director, Lacuna.

The commission is part of a wider public art programme at Paddington Square which opened in 2024 with permanent works by Ugo Rondinone, Pae White and Catherine Yass, alongside the rotating outdoor art site for The Showroom. This ambitious art initiative curated by Lacuna, represents a major investment into the public realm by Great Western Developments, who commissioned the public art programme.

About Long Distance Press

Adam Shield and Thomas Whittle established Long Distance Press in 2013 to formalise their collaborative practice, enabling Shield and Whittle to be artist, publisher, printer, and curator simultaneously. Working between Glasgow, Newcastle, London and Edinburgh. Together they explore the research, drawing and works on paper that often live at the unseen edges of an artists’ practice.

For 10 years Adam Shield and Thomas Whittle have been sending each other artworks through the mail. These posted collages, drawings, beer matts, and photographs are shared snippets of what is going on in their studios, created in relay, each responding to the last. This private correspondence morphed into collaborative zines, art book fairs, workshops, and exhibition making, gathered together under the umbrella Long Distance Press (LDP).

LPD works closely with artists to produce new artworks, artist books and editions that often include areas of practice that are overlooked or undervalued. By offering a space for exploration and collaboration, LDP achieve new and exciting publications which sit uncomfortably between published book and small press artist edition. Employing a myriad of different processes, paper stock and binding methods, they produce printed ephemera that is tactile, intentionally lo-fi and inky to touch. LDP ably demonstrates an open-mindedness to making, collaboration and skills sharing. Their approach actively seeks to empower others to become visible and included in the cultural conversation.

To date LDP has published over twenty artist books with invited artists from across Europe. Other projects include exhibition making, public artwork, workshops and book fairs. Recent projects: POST MARKS (Strange Cargo, Folkestone), HOP STEP (Folkestone West Train Station), BLAST BEAT (Priestman Gallery, Sunderland), Greetings (Mauve, Vienna), IMAGE DRUM (The Royal Academy of London).

About Lacuna

LACUNA is a leading cultural studio realising contemporary art and events in urban spaces and local communities. Lacuna collaborates with urban leaders and collectives, decision makers and creative visionaries to realise contemporary art and events in urban spaces and local communities. We connect clients, including developers, city corporations, and landowners, with artists at various stages of their careers - established, mid-career, and emerging - to create collaborations where artworks sit in harmony with the chosen site.

Lacuna has delivered the ambitious public art programme of permanent and rotational art commissions at Paddington Square led by Stella Ioannou, Lacuna’s Founding Director and Artistic Director of Sculpture in the City, and supported by Jade Niklai, Associate Curator. Since 2011 Lacuna collaborates with the City of London Corporation to deliver London’s largest free outdoor sculpture show each summer called Sculpture in the City, and realises many more activation, community engagement and corporate art collection programmes. Lacuna has also more recently delivered 3 new artworks at 40 Leadenhall as part of the public art programme the team curated for this new state of the art building. Commissioned by M&G, the public art programme includes ‘Trip (Bag Sculptures)’ and ‘Hurry (Bag Sculptures)’ by Erwin Wurm and ‘May Day’, a new site-specific commission by Lothar Gotz.

www.lacuna-projects.com / @lacunaprojects

About Great Western Developments - Paddington Square
Great Western Developments Ltd. is a joint venture between Hotel Properties Limited (“HPL”) and Anchorage View Pte. Ltd. (“AVPL”). HPL is a property developer of premium residential and commercial properties in prime locations. HPL has successfully established a distinctive track record
in delivering best in class luxury developments including The Met in Bangkok, the Cuscaden Residences in Singapore and Holland Park Villas in London. HPL also specialises in hotel ownership, management and operation and has interests in 41 hotels spanning 17 countries, operating under international brands including Four Seasons, Six Senses, Como, Marriott and Hilton. AVPL is a privately held property investment and development company, established in Singapore.

www.paddingtonsquare.co.uk / @PaddingtonSquare