theCOLAB’s Women’s Work Commission 2023

​Frances Richardson responds to The Artist’s Garden as a ‘small chink of space in the city, where you have nothing to do except watch shadows’. The intense and intimate restoration/making process, use of unique materials and narratives of place coalesce in
stillness in ‘Performed object fig. 09130123’, indolentia’. Inspired by snatches of organ music heard at the nearby c.12th Temple Church of the Knights Templar and stained glass windows at the Musée Cluny, Paris, Richardson has constructed a sculptural pause by transforming one of the terrace’s neglected but elegant early c.20th benches. As part of her ‘Performed Object’ series, she makes innovative use of Concrete Canvas, used in disaster relief zones to rapidly build shelters. In the artist’s hands, its great weight and resilience become folds of sumptuous fabric. The work’s title, ‘indolentia’ refers to the Latin for ‘freedom from pain’ rejecting the contemporary negative use of the word indolence and asking what are we if we don’t have time to sit and stare at God’s windows? This object is performed by the artist in its creation, and will continue to be performed by the public as they experience the pleasure of slowness and indolence not as a signal of boredom or frustration, but as a fulfilling activity.

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The Artist’s Garden has transformed a 1400sqm hidden and neglected roof terrace above Temple tube station into a place for the public to experience large-scale life affirming artistic interventions and the Women’s Work exhibition programme.

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Address: On the roof of Temple tube station, London, WC2R 2PH

Opening Hours: Open daily, 8am - dusk.

FREE and OPEN TO ALL. Please note the site is only accessible via steps.