WALALA X PLAY Large-Scale Installation at London’s NOW Gallery

Renowned English graphic artist Camille Walala has built a labyrinth of shapes and colors inside London’s NOW Gallery. Occupying NOW’s main exhibition area from 14 July to 24 September 2017, the large-scale installation WALALA X PLAY invites visitors of all ages to explore the space – and themselves – via a maze of geometric patterns, unpredictable corridors, and Walala’s distinctive bold colors.

Walala has set out to create a temple to wonder in which visitors can unleash their inner child and lose themselves in color and pattern. With walls of different heights, passageways of different widths, enclosed spaces and curved and zigzag paths, the installation foregrounds the idea of human scale, giving visitors both a lasting visual impression and an extraordinary physical experience as they pass through it. Mirrored panels reflect the space back on itself; suspended shapes introduce a feeling of lightness and playful disorientation – WALALA X PLAY is a journey that will challenge, reward and excite gallery-goers in equal measure.

The waterways of the Greenwich Peninsula, the curve of the Thames, and the internal shapes and angles of the buildings themselves are referenced and represented in the internal flow and reflections contained within WALALA X PLAY. The layout of the installation playfully mirrors the shape of the building and its components are positioned in response to the mapping of the building and the peninsula around it. Seen from above, there is a clear, fluid relationship between the walls of the installation and the aerial view of the wider area, making the piece a structural extension of its immediate environment.

At the heart of the installation is a puzzle – a giant three-dimensional game of Spot the Difference. Walala has woven inconsistencies and asymmetries throughout the maze – peppering it with broken geometries and subtly distorted patterns. Stepping into the installation, visitors will be confronted with a challenge: enter the space and explore its colors, patterns, shapes and scales to locate all the differences. Players are also invited to share their findings on Instagram, tagged with @nowgalleryse10 and the hashtag #WALALAXPLAY.