Temple of Agape, a temporary art installation commissioned by the Southbank Centre for their summer ‘Festival of Love’. Agape celebrates ‘love of humanity’, representing one of the seven Ancient Greek themes of Love.
The Southbank were inspired by Martin Luther King’s words ‘I have decided to stick with Love’ and asked us to incorporate his words.
Agape, felt perfect for us and initially easy, ‘Love’ we thought, we all know about it, its all around us, we have felt it and therefore we should know how to express it. But not so easy ‘Love’ is the most emotive subject, hugely challenging and thought provoking.
In our temple we wanted people to feel joy and noise as well as quiet contemplation.
The Agape procession begins with a neon ribboned 196ft canopied series of love benches which lead to the entrance of the temple. The visitor can then journey through or stop and sit in the dappled lit temple and then proceed up the flight of stairs festooned with banners and signs that form a joyful parade to the next level of the Southbank Centre. Creating the chance for visitors to experience new views and a new entrance to the Royal Festival Hall balcony for the duration of the festival.
The temple stands like a proud peacock 26ft high x 39ft wide, with a scaffold structure supporting hundreds of words and clad with hand-painted exterior ply. Over 300 wooden panels were painted by Morag in her studio over a three week period with the help of a great group of volunteers.
Morag & Luke say, ‘Working on the project has reinforced for us that love in all its guises is not simple. At the same time, when you are in love, it can be the purest and simplest place to be’.
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