Explore Leeds with a Christmas art trail

What happens when you give artists the chance to create new interventions in a city at Christmas?

Leeds will find out this November and December, as a 14-piece art trail appears around the city featuring works commissioned from fresh, local talent as well as established artists.

What does the Christmas in Leeds trail have in store? Well, just about everything, from your traditional shopping mall tree with a twist (the Trinity Kissmas Tree) to a six-metre winged human figure looming over commuters in Leeds train station. Five local artists will stamp their creative vision onto the trail, alongside offerings from big institutions such as Northern Ballet, Leeds College of Art and Harvey Nichols.

As Martin Dickson of Leeds BID – the brains behind the Welcome to Leeds campaign, which has commissioned the work – said at the launch event, “We need more magic, more sparkle and more engagement” in Leeds during Christmas. Who better to offer this than artists who live and work in the city every day?

[Artist Alison M Smith working on her piece for the Christmas in Leeds art trail]

Christmas in Leeds: Meet the artists

Artists Dave Lynch, Alison M Smith, David Shearing, The Glass Cyphers and NEWSUBSTANCE each have practices, studios and homes in the city – and Leeds organisation East Street Arts was heavily involved in the development stages of the trail, identifying these upcoming and established local artists.

Leeds-based design studio NEWSUBSTANCE will bring their vision, SPIRIT, to Leeds train station’s main hall on 17 November. The design is a six-metre human figure placed horizontally in the roof of the station’s main hall. Devoid of race, religion or gender, it is woven from a colourful network of strings that fan out from the figure, referencing Leeds’ vibrant textiles heritage. “Part of the brief was to break boundaries and create something iconic for the festive period,” says Patrick O’Mahoney, creative director at NEWSUBSTANCE. “Our hope is that SPIRIT will give people a beacon of hope for the year ahead.”

[A visitor photographs SPIRIT by NEWSUBSTANCE during installation]

NEWSUBSTANCE have been based in Leeds for a number of years, yet this is their first commission in the city. “Recently it feels like there’s been a change in the city in terms of the approach and belief in the talent that’s within it,” O’Mahoney says. “It’s a positive step towards sending out a great message to other artists and creatives in the city.”

Alison M Smith is a local artist and workshop co-ordinator whose studio sits in the East Street Arts venue at 130 Vicar Lane. Her work Textures of Winter is a light installation, resembling ice formations evolving, growing, melting and reforming, which will hang from trees in Park Square from 15 November. 

“A lot of my work tries to replicate organic textures using natural materials,” Smith says of her practice, transforming recycled materials that have been gathered from local Leeds retailers into beautiful sculptural lighting. The natural and organic world features heavily in Smith’s previous work, which has included a coral reef for Light Night 2016 and lights whose shapes are often likened to plants or flowers. “The lights in Park Square will be something magical to light up a cold and dark wintery park,” she says.

[Alison installing Textures of Winter in Park Square]

"Christmas is about compassion, other people, togetherness, isolation..."

David Shearing, the artist behind The Weather Café, which appeared on The Headrow in March this year, is to create a box-like sculpture called Christmas With Us. Shearing explains: “It takes some themes that we worked on in The Weather Café, which is essentially drawing out the stories and narratives of the people of Leeds.” Christmas With Us will be an immersive sound and light experience where visitors are invited to spend 40 minutes sitting around a table with strangers and a bowl of soup, sharing stories about the festive period and what it means to them and the others they sit with.

[David Shearing at work in his studio]

The aim is for Christmas With Us to launch on 1 December – Central Square is the venue. “It’s not about just finding a suitable space but finding out what those venues are doing this Christmas so that this neatly fits in,” Shearing says. “Visitors will discover and stumble upon it, so finding it in a slightly unusual location is key.”

There is a general feeling in Leeds that the current Christmas decorations don’t quite cut it when compared to other cities’ offers; another gripe is that holiday decoration in Leeds is too concerned with material representations rather than the values that this time of year is about. The Christmas in Leeds project hopes to challenge this through its artist commissions. As Shearing says, “Artists are key here, as they attempt to challenge conventional modes of consumption that we often get carried away with at this time of year.

“For me Christmas is about compassion, other people, togetherness, isolation, and I’m really trying to reveal what this time of year means for everyone through my work – even those who do not celebrate Christmas and see it as a difficult time of year.”

Follow the Christmas in Leeds art trail!

New pieces will be added to the trail over November and December.

Here's where and when to find them

Already installed
Holy Trinity Church

Harvey Nichols
Trinity Kissmas Tree
City Square Tree

Park Square Tree Lights
Textures of Winter by Alison M Smith

SPIRIT by NEWSUBSTANCE

Santa's Christmas Post Office

24 November 
The Wishing Tree by JHR 

25 November
The Northern Lights by Dave Lynch in collaboration with Adam Glatherine and Suzie Cross
The Murmuration Cloud by The Glass Cyphers

28 November
Northern Ballet Tree 

1 December
Christmas With Us by David Shearing 
Waggon Lifting Hoist
Radial

welcometoleeds.co.uk

All photos: Tom Joy