Origarden
A painted egg sculpture for The Big Egg Hunt. A collaboration with Paolo Longo for John McAslan + Partners, shown on Sloane Street.
OVERVIEW
‘Origarden’ is a sculptural egg created for The Big Egg Hunt, the citywide art trail by Elephant Family and Clarence Court that placed over 120 giant eggs across London to raise funds for wildlife conservation in South Asia. Made with Paolo Longo for John McAslan + Partners, it stood on Sloane Street: a folded paper-like form encasing a miniature green space, on the themes of rebirth and sustainability.
THE BRIEF
The Big Egg Hunt gives each team the same blank egg and a charitable cause. Ours took its cue from the newly transformed Sloane Street public realm (a project JMP led as lead designer) and from the lush planting of Cadogan Place Gardens and the street's 300-year-old mulberry trees. The piece needed to carry that botanical, architectural story on a small, sculptural, three-dimensional surface.
THE CONCEPT
The egg became a dynamic canvas. My bold, layered colours capture the depth of plant life, from understorey to tree canopy, while Paolo Longo's tessellated, faceted pattern introduces a striking three-dimensional effect. The structure transforms the painted garden into a living, shifting composition: a fusion of fluid artistry and sculptural geometry, where the garden seems to fold and refold as you move around it.
THE OUTCOME
Origarden joined the Big Egg Hunt trail on Sloane Street, drawing attention and praise for its elegance and its thinking, a small public object that argued for the harmony between nature and the built environment, in the heart of a street JMP had just reshaped. At the end of the trail it was auctioned, alongside the other eggs, to raise money for Elephant Family’s conservation work.
