The artist has used reflective aluminium paint and black dots to create intimate scenes of himself and his friends on walls at Wren Landing
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Canary Wharf’s Pride month celebrations generally feature vibrant colours.
From the rainbow pedestrian crossings to the multicolour triangles of Lothar Götz, subtly recalling the abuse of LGBTQIA+ people at the hands of the Nazis.
But Henry Gibbs Get Real, painted on three walls at Wren Landing overlooking West India North Dock, presents a different take on queer relationships and intimacy.
Pass by close up and his monochrome dots may well be incomprehensible – a random pattern in black and white.
But move further away and things start to come into focus.
discovery in abstraction
“While I was painting it, I hadn’t really comprehended the image because I was very close to it all the time,” said Henry, who spent three weeks creating the work.
“When I felt something from it was when I went over to the other side of the dock.
“That action of taking a step back is when the emotion comes, not necessarily one particular feeling, but really trying to understand something and getting to know it.
“The act of abstraction and including hidden references is a very queer thing. I could say that the dots are a queer abstraction, which is a theory in itself.
“Then there’s the use of colour in the work – I wanted to create something more understated for this commission.
“With the black dots I was thinking about light, so I used aluminium reflective paint as the base, which literally takes light and colour from the sources around it.
“That’s a queer thing in itself, because of the constant change that is being influenced by the painting’s environment.
“The black dots are also like a newspaper-style print and the mural as a whole has this aspect of absorption, which is a reflection of queer identity.
“The aluminium paint will pick up some colour in different lights – at sunset it can have an orange glow and there will be a similar effect at five in the morning as well as the glow of artificial lights at night.”
Henry is the second artist to create work on the estate through Canary Wharf Group’s partnership with Pictorum Gallery, following the unveiling of Lydia Hamblet’s Together, Basking On The South Quay in 2023.
A recent graduate of Central Saint Martins, he said he’d developed an increasingly mechanical way of painting, having become interested in technology as a medium.
joining the dots
“I developed this dot technique, using found imagery and photography I do myself,” he said.
“I half-tone and then project them onto a canvas to create a distorted, abstract look up close.
“Then at a distance – or if you view it online – you get a sense of the image that’s there. That’s also the technique I used for the mural.
“The title comes from the film Get Real, which is about coming out in school – it’s quite a raw 1990s movie that was cheaply made but has a real impact and a strong message about growing up gay.
“The painting’s title is also about Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of The Real – that your self comes from within and is not influenced by anything else.
“I don’t really believe in coming out, but my real self is found in the images in the work. It features my friends Ed and Tommy as well as me on the thinner wall.
“It references my own queer friendships and intimacies, which have only developed quite recently, so there’s discovery too, which I wanted to celebrate.
“It’s a strange feeling to have this mural in Canary Wharf. It’s my thing, but it’s also such a public display of the work.
“I would have to go and see people looking at it to understand how that feels – I can’t really imagine it.
“I found the process of doing it very exposing, because there were people watching me doing it. It did feel good to complete it.
“My friends and family all came to the launch and I felt pleased with what I’ve done.
“I’d never been to Canary Wharf before this project, I didn’t know who I’d be working with or where.
“There were a lot of late nights, a lot of work, but we got it done and I feel very accomplished.
key details: Get Real in Canary Wharf
Get Real can be seen at Wren Landing (between Cabot Square and West India North Dock.
It is a permanent part of Canary Wharf’s public art collection and will be on display for the foreseeable future.
Find out more about the mural here
Read more: How Toby Kidman created a pub with soul at the Pacific Tavern
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- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
