NEW MATTER

International Women's Day at King's Cross

Lena Yokoyama was invited by Google’s Artist in Residence Programme (AIR), to design a mural in celebration of International Women’s Day to be installed on the construction hoarding at the new Google development in King's Cross, London.

As an homage to each and every woman, the mural celebrates women from every walk of life coming together in the heart of London, in a location where people from all over the city and world converge. Lena chose to focus on the small happenings and everyday moments in women’s lives – eating, shopping, reading, creating, cycling and more – acknowledging the things we often don’t notice, little details that may inspire a passerby to stop for a minute and take time to appreciate them.

Lena spent time in the area, making sketches and observing the day to day comings and goings near the installation sites, which inform some of the varied characters within the design. The result is a joyful and colourful illustration that celebrates women every day of the year.  

Google‘s AIR program commissions local artists to create site-specific original artworks in Google spaces around the world. The King's Cross site holds a special place in Lena’s heart as a University of the Arts London graduate, who’s famous Central Saint Martins building resides in the area’s Granary Square, close to the mural. An area rich in history and character, it has seen much development in recent years and is home to a wide variety of different people, from local residents to tourists, students and workers, using the area to live, work, shop and socialise.

My illustration is a homage to the wonderful diversity that women represent. We come in all shapes and forms, ages, sexual orientations; we have different abilities and interests, represent diverse cultures, speak many languages and, on top of all that, we are each completely unique as individual beings”

– Lena Yokoyama

www.grandmatter.com/lenayokoyama

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