LONDON.- In 2019, Waltham Forest will be the first ever London Borough of Culture, giving locals the chance to experience world-class culture on their doorstep. To mark the opening of London Borough of Culture 2019, audio visual artists Greenaway & Greenaway have been commissioned to form a unique collaboration with award-winning musician Talvin Singh to create a twelveminute spectacle that will be projected onto the Town Hall as part of the opening event, Welcome To The Forest.

Greenaway & Greenaway’s piece is part documentary, part video mapping, part music video. Titled Into the Forest, it is a transformative, site-specific and site-responsive light artwork featuring 1,000 video portraits, 10 local businesses, 12 spoken word artists and 4 dancers. Celebrating Greenaway & Greenaway’s 10th anniversary, this spectacular project has input from local business, institutions and independent artists and craft makers.

An exceptional artwork that explores the complex social issues facing the UK in 2019, Into the Forest will take people on a journey through time, through the borough and into the future. It will be a high energy, audio visual, hyperlocal piece of entertainment. Using film and animation to bring the building to life, this project tells the ‘story’ of Waltham Forest through the eyes of the people representative of the diverse communities who call it ‘home’. With expert delivery from Greenaway & Greenaway, these personal and difficult stories are presented in a creative and poetic way that is engaging and real.

Greenaway & Greenaway have explored the entirety of the Borough through Chingford Walthamstow Markets, Leyton Orient Football Club, Whipps Cross Hospital, High Roads of Leyton and Leytonstone, Baptist churches, mosques, and Hindi temples. Through this journey, they found people with whom they wish to engage, digging out information about the borough in order to give the film its voice. With their work inspired by William Morris, utopia, fellowship, multiculturalism and togetherness, the highly skilful post-production skills of Greenaway & Greenaway have pushed the boundaries of their craft, enabling them to conceptualise, design, film, edit, animate and compose original content for this site-specific installation.

Greenaway & Greenaway was established in 2009 by brothers Jude and Jolyon, who share a similar attitude and approach towards their artistic endeavours, leading to an organic production process that results in a strong signature style of work. This collaborative process of disciplines, crafting artistic and commercial work, allows them to forge dynamic films for spaces that is a hybrid of video, animation and sound. Their work has seen them take commissions for a hugely diverse range of clients and projects, including; Ron Arad, Fiat, Jaguar, V&A, Roundhouse, Wembley Arena, Olympics London and Rio. Greenaway & Greenaway have also collaborated with the likes of The Who, Pet Shop Boys, Current Value, Chase & Status, Drums of Death, The Script, Eric Prydz, Pendulum.

Greenaway & Greenaway comment, As local artists, this felt like a particularly important commission – one that also marks G&G being ten years in partnership. It’s a great way to start the year. This is an incredibly exciting, high profile project that has needed a lot of energy, brainpower and attention to develop the ideas to get it right, but this is married with the response to the local responsibility. We've not just worked with one or two people, but a dozen that are all passionate and have something meaningful to say. It has become a collage of collective thought that we've woven into a conversation, and although is still top-line, this allows our message to be representative whilst staying ubiquitous. It’s been like making the jigsaw parts before we knew what it'd look like, and now we just need to put it together.

This is a bespoke commission by the Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture and is part of an exciting three day evening programme for Welcome To The Forest. Other artists contributing to the event are; Addictive TV with a 4-minute piece also to be shown on the Town Hall, a Winter Carnival by Continental Drifts of Forest Road, and Marshmallow Laser Feast & Erland Cooper are creating an artistic light and sound installation in Lloyds Park.