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Notes to Editors

In A River A Thousand Streams is just the latest installation to feature in and around the London Bridge station area, in which we’ve worked with local artists and community groups to enhance the enjoyment of everyone who uses the station and to inject colour into our surroundings. 

More information about Network Rail’s support for public art is available on its website: 
www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/art-and-the-railway/  

Timeline 

LSoM approached Network Rail in 2016 to develop the project. Fabrication began in the studio in mid-2022 and continued until 2024. The first third was installed in summer 2023 and was finished in spring 2024. 

Design details 

Across the panels, the pattern begins as spikey and hardlined and slowly unravels into looser lines as it gets closer to the river.  

The design was printed onto paper and cut into c800 sections to be made and fixed to the wall like a jigsaw. 

London School of Mosaic (LSoM) 

Mosaic education in the UK has a long and inspiring history. Since 1860, several attempts have been made to establish an art school dedicated to mosaics in the UK, but LSoM’s is the only one to have succeeded. Today, LSoM is an independent art school that offers a range of specialist short courses, workshops, accredited training and a Diploma in Mosaic Studies – the first of its kind in the UK. 

Based near Hampstead Heath, the LSoM team have established over 350 installations in public spaces, won numerous national and international awards, and built a strong community around their work. In recognition, the Greater London Authority and Camden Council provided funding to develop the school into a community centre with an expanded remit, bringing together mosaicists, charities and local residents, which will open in late 2023. Commissioning Adam Nathaniel Furman to design In a River a Thousand Streams continues their work to promote the historical medium, and is their largest public artwork to date. 

www.lsomosaic.com  

Adam Nathaniel Furman 

London-based artist and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman is one of the most exciting, positive and provocative voices in the contemporary architecture and design space. Known for their gloriously colourful, unapologetically flamboyant interventions in public space, Adam creates spaces, objects and artworks at all scales – from collections of glass and porcelain vessels they designed for Lebanese craft collective Beit, to high-impact public-space interventions such as 2021’s irrepressibly joyful ‘anti-monument’ Proud Little Pyramid, which celebrated the queer history of King’s Cross. 

Adam’s work has been exhibited in London, Paris, New York, Milan, Melbourne, Rome, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Vienna and Basel, and is held in the collections of the Design Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Abet Museum, and the Architectural Association. In May 2022, with Josh Mardell, Adam published the Colvin Prize-shortlisted book Queer Spaces with RIBA – a landmark anthology of LGBTQIA+ places around the world that is now featured on university architecture reading lists. 

www.adamnathanielfurman.com  

About The Shard  

The Shard has been named a sponsor of the new public mosaic. Occupiers of The Shard were given the opportunity to cast their votes on which section of the mosaic the iconic building would sponsor. The winning selection fell upon a panel artfully mirroring the building's own striking silhouette, a testament to the occupiers’ affinity for their soaring home. 

The Shard at 310m high (1,016 ft), is Europe’s first vertical city. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, it comprises a 26-floor office complex, six world-class bars and restaurants (aqua shard, Oblix, Hutong, TĪNG, GŎNG and Bar 31), a 19-floor five-star hotel (Shangri-La) and the UK’s highest viewing gallery (The View from The Shard).  

A floor-by-floor guide to The Shard can be found here: https://www.the-shard.com/shard/level-guide/    

theshard@clarioncomms.co.uk