‘Leeds Bridge 1880/2026 (after Grimshaw)’
Commissioned as part of Leeds 400 (400th anniversary of Leeds’ Royal Charter) for Light Night Leeds (28-29 Oct 2026), ‘Leeds Bridge 1880/2026 (after Grimshaw)’ is a digital photographic collage which recreates Atkinson Grimshaw’s 1880 painting from Leeds Art Gallery’s collection to reveal how both the city and this historic crossing over the River Aire have evolved in the intervening years, whilst also tracing details that have endured.
Light Night Leeds is a free annual public festival showing over 40 illuminated art installations, light displays and large-scale projections across the city centre.
Illuminated on the side of an advertising van located in the Millennium Square Zone, beside ‘The Light’ retail and leisure centre, the artwork was presented as a movie that slowly crossfades to and from Grimshaw’s painting into Allchurch’s digital-photographic collage of the same view today – a process which subtly connects two moments in the life of the area around Leeds Bridge.
This form of presentation is a new way of Allchurch displaying her work in the public realm and at large scale.