Commissioned Artist: Long Distance Press
Curated by The Showroom in partnership with Lacuna
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.
Long Distance Press: Hand Over Hand. Billboard installation, Tanner Lane, Paddington Square 2025.
Photo © Dan Weill
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.
