For The Showroom’s Mural Commission 2025-26, artist Mandy El-Sayegh has employed a cut-up methodology, layering materials with poetic fragments to explore the textures of commonality, social justice, and modes of resistance. Assembling scraps of forgotten histories, the artist questions whether aesthetics can be used as a bridge for communication. Key to her investigation is the question: how can aesthetic freedom exist without political freedom? And who has the right to abstraction?

Drawing on a wide range of sources, El-Sayegh will incorporate fragments from personal and collective narratives. The Showroom’s location, situated off Edgware Road close to Church Street Market, holds personal significance for the artist, who partially grew up and spent her young adulthood in the area. Working with communities based in the neighbourhood, the artist has collected slogans, imagery and poetry which she has used to create new pieces that have been reassembled as elements in the mural. This process of assemblage spans the artist’s practice, where shreds of information with no immediate association are transformed into a coherent, if disjunctive, whole. ‘Assembly’ is here used with a double meaning, to denote bodies coming together, as in freedom of assembly, as well as words and objects.

On one façade of the building, text is inscribed into wooden panels to form a poetic manifesto. The title ‘Painting in the Exploded Field’ references the art historian Rosalind Krauss, who developed the terminology of art forms transgressing their traditional borders, with the substitution of ‘Exploded’ introducing the idea of real-life violence. The slogan ‘We Are Everywhere’ is rooted in the queer liberation movement, as well as having resonances with the idea of diaspora; appearing in both English and Arabic at the head of the manifesto. The text uses non-standard grammar and spelling at various points, alluding to the reclamation of English as it is spoken, particularly by non-native speakers, resisting the imposition of ‘correct’ forms.

On the adjacent façade, El-Sayegh has assembled physical objects onto a metal grid structure, echoing her painting process, in which fragments are held together by a painted grid, which alludes to traditions of abstraction in art history, as well as implying the fragility or impossibility of constructing and holding together a coherent body or whole. The grid also recalls tribute-walls to which objects are attached as offerings of remembrance, and forms part of a lineage in El-Sayegh’s works around rites to honour the dead.

A new sound work can be heard by passers-by. Created by El-Sayegh together with her long-term collaborator, composer Lily Oakes, the piece also uses the methodology of cut-up and assemblage. The track is constructed around samples from the iconic Lebanese singer Fairuz: كانوا يا حبيبي (They Were My Beloved) and زهرة المدائن (The Flower of All Cities) which are known throughout the Arab world, are interlaced with layers of humming, musical phrases and snippets of guided breathing exercises by Wim Hof. The sound element helps to construct the space of the mural as one of tribute, a place to find comfort and moments of peace, and to process grief, while at the same time alluding to resistance.

We invite you to listen to the sound work here

About the artist

Mandy El-Sayegh is an artist based in London whose practice is rooted in assemblage. Executed in a wide range of media – including paintings, sculpture, and installation, as well as performance, sound, and video – her works investigate the formation and break-down of systems of order, be they bodily, linguistic, or political. Recent presentations of her work include Otra Orilla / Another Shore, The Gateway Exhibition, Abu Dhabi (2024-25); Art Basel Parcours, Basel (2024); Enfleshing Overbeck- Gesellschaft – Kunstverein Lübeck (2023); MOVE 2022: Culture club — Corps collectifs at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2022); the Biennale Matter of Art, Prague, (2022); and the travelling exhibition British Art Show 9 (2021–22). Her monograph The Makeshift Body was published in 2023 by Black Dog Press. El-Sayegh’s work is in public and private collections, including LACMA, Los Angeles; Tate, London; and Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah.

Collaborators

Middle Eastern Women & Society Organisation (MEWSO) based in the Church Street Neighbourhood Centre NW8: Hasnaa Fathi, Iman Morsy, Karima Nasr, Maha Mihiedeen, Marie Helena, Mayada Alsayed Issa, Nabila Bouali, Rema, and those who wish to remain anonymous.

Mural Technicians

Eva Dixon, Tom Enoch, Jack Felgate, Ollie Jacob, Conor Maroof, Anna Pigott, Fani Parali, Rory Strudwick, Rosa Wolf and Arabic calligraphy by El Hozzei.

About the Mural Commission

The Showroom Mural Commission is a unique opportunity for artists to activate the building’s emblematic facade. Once a year, an artist is invited to work in collaboration with members of communities around the Church Street Ward to create artwork for the mural, complemented by public programming that includes a series of community-engaging events and workshops.
Our approach is unique in how we foster strong, long-term relationships and consider everyone involved as collaborators. Trust and mindful consideration of the project’s impact are central to our way of working. Some groups and individuals are starting to participate in projects within our broader programme, and in some cases are taking on a more proactive role within artistic productions. 
Our programme emphasises collaborative and process-driven approaches to production, encompassing artwork, exhibitions, events, discussions, publications, knowledge sharing, and relationships. We engage with artists and practitioners, including those who are new to the London art scene and international artists. Additionally, we work closely with groups and individuals in our local community who we bring together to work in partnership with artists on specific projects and commissions that contribute to the programme. Public events and workshops form part of these commissions, alongside a programme of publishing, research and events including discussions, screenings, panels, book launches and performances.