Gayle Chong Kwan
Peckham Square SE15, October 2009 - March 2010 

Peckham Space announces its fifth commission, The eyes see more than the heart knows, which will be installed in Peckham Square in October. This will be the final Peckham Space commission before the launch of the new venue in Spring 2010. 

The eyes see more than the heart knows is a large-scale photographic hoarding project by artist Gayle Chong Kwan, made in response to the landscape of Peckham and referencing local memory and history. A fantastical image will clothe the hoardings surrounding Peckham Space during its construction and when the building is complete it will emerge from this exotic chrysalis.continued

Its title, The eyes see more than the heart knows, is taken from a line in William Blake’s 1793 poem ‘Daughters of Albion’. It is a colourful and magical panorama that will introduce a forest to one side of Peckham Square, maintaining an illusion of growth through autumn and winter. It recalls the history of Peckham, once an important market garden growing produce for the rest of London, and explores notions of sensory understanding, and empirical perception. Depicting the skyline of London, as seen from Peckham, a spectacular forest grows in the foreground whose trees and foliage are created from the dried pith, stones and peel of fruit and vegetables gathered from the market on Rye Lane.