The recently completed No.1 Spinningfields will be illuminated this Valentine’s Day with a large-scale light installation on its Quay Street facade, from 10th to 18th February. ‘Heart of Manchester’ is a light art piece which uses the dramatic frontage of the city’s tallest commercial office building as a monumental canvas, declaring a message of love to the people of Manchester.
‘Heart of Manchester’ is a collaboration between artist Stuart Langley, Spinningfields developer Allied London, and No.1 Spinningfields owners Schroders. A huge illuminated heart interwoven into one of Manchester’s most iconic new developments, the piece seeks to punctuate the city’s skyline with an arresting graphic gesture to stop people in their tracks. It aims to stop people on the tracks too, as Metrolink users passing through Deansgate-Castlefield will receive the best vantage point.
An attempt to create a visual and tangible link between people and the fabric of their city, ‘Heart of Manchester’ is symbolic of the life, energy and human connections spread throughout our metropolis. As a bold and simple installation visible to thousands across the city, ‘Heart of Manchester’ radiates and inspires positivity in the hope of detaching our gaze from the screens that command our attention and enjoy, even for a few seconds, a connection which cuts through the negative fuzz of the everyday.
Creator Stuart Langley said:
“‘Heart of Manchester’ is designed to make people stop and think of what they really love about their own lives. I am over the moon to have been given the opportunity to reach out to so many people by realising this monumental artwork on such an incredible building.”
Langley creates artworks and installations destined to live outside the gallery and change our everyday. Inspired by fantastical worlds depicted in films such as The Dark Crystal and obsessed with the staged magic of theme parks and coastal resorts, he uses art as a tool to change outlooks and give a means of escape from boring. He works with light, colour, neon and waste and has been commissioned throughout the UK and abroad.
‘Heart of Manchester’ is a development of ‘beating heart’ created as part of Light Night Leeds 2017.
No.1 Spinningfields office tenants include PwC, Browne Jacobson, NorthEdge Capital, Douglas Scott, and Squire Patton Boggs. The building is also home to D&D London’s first Manchester restaurant, 20 Stories, which will become the city’s highest restaurant when it opens in March.
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