ARKADE

Ark: A place of protection, refuge and security

Arkade is a colourful and playful interactive light-based art installation, originally commissioned for exhibition in Jaywick, a small seaside township on the Essex coast. 

A temporary room built inside an existing space,  Arkade is a reflection on the transient and resilient structures adorned and adapted by the residents of Jaywick, a unique and creative community, as well as vulnerable and gravely under threat from rising sea levels.

Arkade presents a positive viewpoint, an artwork evolved from a connectivity with local residents, with a series of offshore and onshore workshops and events, each taking a deep dive into coastal and marine wildlife and the many strategies species and creatures employ to as a form of protection.

Arkade responds to complex and diverse local coastline features and wildlife and is inspired by local legends of witchcraft, resulting in a visual series of occult style symbols of protection. A collection of symbols are illustrated and repurposed into a colourful, noisy and nostalgically familiar British seaside amusement, the fruit machine.

Four fruit machines, alongside lightbox artworks and neon, form the Arkade art installation.