As part of the London Design Festival and designjunction, we worked with award-winning British designer Steuart Padwick, Time to Change, and Ramboll to create ‘Talk To Me’, a series of two giant 5.5-metre sculptures designed to stimulate conversations about mental health, situated in King’s Boulevard, King’s Cross from 17- 22 September 2019.

As visitors approached the breathing wooden sculptures, a sensor was triggered, and the figures voiced poignant and uplifting words. These conversations started to crack the ‘burden’ to release a glowing light. The series progressed from a standing figure, carrying the burden on its shoulders, to a figure resting against its burden, highlighting that while the burden may not be overtly visible it is often not far away.

We worked on developing Padwick’s vision for the sound and lighting of the piece.  Talk To Me was designed to interact with the public, using sensors to play pre-recorded voices and Padwick collaborated with over 30 writers, poets. actors and mental health recovery ambassadors who wrote and recorded pieces for the work. Making this work, required careful balancing of these voices in what is a noisy open space. The pieces needed to be able to express the importance of communication to mental health.