Royal Mint Art Squares : May 2006

Only 30 years ago all of Britain's spending cash was minted in Tower Hamlets,now the only legacy of supplying the cash that oiled the wheels of the economy is its name -Royal Mint. Mark was invited to develop a series of artwork in partnership with the local community around the Royal Mint redevelopment. Mark devised the idea of creating five illuminated paving squares with the help of children from the two local schools' of Shapla and St Paul's. In workshops the children made clay coins inspired by living in the area, mixing images of local historic landmarks, such as The Tower of London and the Thames with personal images of their family, friends and things of interest. The coins were then cast in coloured urethane and encapsulated underneath a 32mm sheet of glass held in a steel frame.

The art squares are almost a metre square and so far three of the five have been installed along the new pathway leading from the Royal Mint to Cartright Street with the further two being installed within the park in June 2006. The patterns for the layout of the urethane coins were inspired by the children's designs.