During our recent venture to Bow, we stopped by the studio of Mike Ballard, managed by space studios, which has provided the artist with a studio space for eighteen years now- and which the artist describes as his “favourite space yet”. Ballard showed us his raw material selection, mostly consisting of wooden panels, hoardings or scaffolding nets sourced in London’s urban environments. The artist also guided us through the ideas behind his upcoming works on view at “Recreational Grounds”, in which he will be showing a series of large signs that he liberated from a council building in Plymouth, along with a hoarding installation that almost looks like it belongs in the space it will be shown – a public parking lot located in Elephant and Castle. In the words of the artist, “every journey I make in the city feeds my practice, it’s hard not to. I listen to a lot of music whilst working, I don’t really do ‘Luck’, I do work hard and dedication.”
