Contemporary Art Society supports Oscar Murillo to create a new a site-specific performance for Art Night 2019

Taking the form of a site-specific performance or ‘action’, Oscar Murillo’s commission Letter from America will take place on 22 June in Walthamstow Trades Hall, a traditional working men's club in an area experiencing rapid gentrification.

This work continues themes he has explored throughout his career, including labour, migration and displacement. Letter from America takes its title from a song by Scottish band The Proclaimers, which laments forced migration caused by 1980s de-industrialisation and factory closures. Having spent a large part of his young life in North East London, Murillo’s work considers the changing and sometimes embattled nature of working class communities in the UK.

This is the third collaboration between the Contemporary Art Society and Art Night. In 2018 the CAS co-commissioned Prem Sahib to create a large-scale sculpture that referenced the changing character of Vauxhall, from 18th century pleasure garden to a space for gay nightlife, through to the new apartments that characterise the area today. Two works by Sahib were subsequently donated to the Tate collection.

In 2017 the Contemporary Art Society supported Anne Hardy to create a major immersive installation called Falling and Walking (phhhhhhhhhhh phossshhhhh crrhhhhzzz mn huaooogh). The Latest of Hardy’s FIELD works, it was transported after the event to Leeds Art Gallery to join their permanent collection.

Art Night is London’s largest free contemporary art festival. This year’s edition is curated by Helen Nisbet and takes place in Walthamstow and King’s Cross on 22 June, with a small selection of projects open for the Family Trail on 23 June. You can find out more about the festival here.