That piece of weathered battered wooden package case found lying in the rain last week, has now spent a week in a warm dry space. Warmth means growth, leaf-shapes or whatever you wish to think of them as. So the piece of old wooded packing case looks like it has traveled from the Congo, via Tilbury Docks, to Latham’s, a wood yard by the River Lee, here in Hackney, with, as pointed out by a visitor to Cultivate who came in while I was painting on it, with quite a history.

James Latham was a 18th century timber merchant from Liverpool who moved to Shoreditch in 1815. From 1912 Latham’s were also in Hackney where, in 1991, they employed 100-250 workers across a number of sites including Middlesex Wharf, further reading

And now the piece of packing case shall continue its journey, on to car park in Soho and the Chinatown New Year celebrations, where it will be joined by other pieces of found and painted on packing cases, as part of an art show called CHINESE OPEN 2014. The show opens tomorrow, Sunday, Feb 2nd, more details here   

LATHAM’S WOOD YARD FIRE, 1940 / LATHAM’S TODAY