A pair of artworks that celebrate the Ray building and LinkedIn’s connection with history and heritage through abstract form and shape.

 From the type foundry of Vincent Figgins and the book barrows lining Farringdon Road to dictionary pioneer Samuel Johnston’s workspace at St John’s Gate and the Ray building’s previous incarnation as a newspaper headquarters, the printed word dominates the history of Clerkenwell. A media and communications hub to this day, it is also, fittingly, home to the London offices of LinkedIn - a company which shares a passion for communication and innovation with the area’s former inhabitants.   

Taking cues from this history of craftsmanship and creativity, SPECIMEN I & II’s relief abstract shapes are drawn from the negative spaces of former Ray Street resident Vincent Figgins’ typography specimens and letterpress blocks. These relief elements, created by the space around and between the letterforms, play on movement, scale and abstraction. They are a poetic collaboration with the past as well as a celebration of the dynamic and bold present. 

CURATED BY Jo Mclaughlin at Acrylicize