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Meet the joy maker: Artistic Director of Artichoke,
Helen Marriage

Meet the joy maker:

Artistic Director of Artichoke, Helen Marriage

As part of our Happy New Decade celebrations, we caught up with Helen Marriage, the woman behind some of the UK’s most spectacular outdoor art, designed to spread joy and create unforgettable moments for all.

The Sultan's Elephant (2006), organised by Artichoke

Q: When did you first start Artichoke?

 

Artichoke began as a vehicle to produce Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant [a huge mechanical elephant and giant girl marionette paraded through London’s streets], founded by myself and my then business partner, Nicky Webb, in 2005. We worked for seven years prior to this to persuade the public authorities to allow it to happen, patiently explaining the case for shutting the streets of a world city to allow the public to come out to play. 

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the concept behind your work? 

 

From The Sultan’s Elephant to Lumiere – the UK’s largest annual light festival – and Processions, our mass artwork to mark the centenary of women getting the vote in 2018, each Artichoke production exists in a unique, unforgettable moment in time. 

 

Our speciality is the spectacular – large-scale unprecedented shows, with the highest production values, that delight and dazzle in equal measure. We exist to transform the public realm through the imagination of artists, to achieve their wildest dreams and create a shared audience experience that stays with people long after the events are over. 

'Fires Ancient' (2016) by Martin Firrell, part of Artichoke's London's Burning project to commemorate 350 years since the Great Fire of London

 

We believe that when people collectively hear, see and feel something, it can have an astounding effect that lives on in the memory forever

Q: Why are community and public art such important threads in your work?

 

We aim to reach those who would not necessarily ever visit an art gallery, and who might not even recognise what they are seeing as art. By embedding ourselves in the communities where we work, people feel part of the process.

 

A recent example is Mader Wiemann’s 'Apollo 50' projection-mapping project we produced in Peterlee, County Durham. We were commissioned by Durham County Council to produce a work to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the building of the Apollo Pavilion, an unloved Brutalist architectural structure built in the middle of a housing estate in the same year as the Apollo moon landings. When our project happened, local residents were transfixed and saw the Pavilion in a new light. We also worked with Guildhall School of Music and Drama to train local students at East Durham College in video-projection techniques. 

'Apollo 50' (2019) by Mader Wiemann and produced by Artichoke
'Apollo 50' celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Pavilion, County Durham

 

No community is left untouched by the magic we create in their streets, above their heads, and in their hearts.”

Processions (2018), organised by Artichoke to celebrate the centenary of women getting the vote

Q: What sort of things make you laugh day-to-day?


The oddest things. At the moment, I’m working in Ireland as Creative Director of Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. There’s a knitted sculpture in Shannon Airport that always makes me laugh. 

 

Q: Why do you think fun/joy is so important today?


I think people are often scared in the jobs they do; they don’t want to be held accountable. That’s why so many people start off by saying ‘no’ to the kinds of projects we propose. My job, or one of my jobs, is to inject some joy, to share the vision, and enable people to say ‘yes’. 

'Geometrical Traces' (2019) by Javes Riera for Lumiere, produced by Artichoke

Discover Happy New Decade

Helen Marriage is CEO of Artichoke and Creative Director of Galway 2020, European Capital of Culture.