SEPT 26—OCT 4, 2026
Atlanta Design Festival is a platform to celebrate, convene, & connect creative industries. The festival invites the brightest creative leaders and organizations to host installations, exhibitions, design and architecture tours, film screenings, conference panels and more, to showcase Atlanta as a global powerhouse and innovator of ideas. Read More
Talk To Me
Two giant figures stance on Mental Heath & Communication
As visitors approached the breathing wooden sculptures, a sensor was triggered, and the figures voiced poignant and uplifting words. These conversations started to crack the ‘burden’ to release a glowing light.
The series progressed from a standing figure, carrying the burden on its shoulders, to a figure resting against its burden, highlighting that while the burden may not be overtly visible it is often not far away. These words were written and recorded by notable poets, writers, actors and mental health ambassadors.
Talk to Me, is a hopeful piece, designed in Douglas Fir to convey a warmth and humanity in stark contrast to the strict cuboid shapes and ‘concrete’ blocks. Scale was important to convey the power of the subject and again to emphasise the humanity of the voices. HI-MACS, an innovative composite material was used, which had ‘cracks’ cut into it so that the lighting could seep through and reveal these cracks.
Once again we teamed up with Time to Change following 2018’s ‘Head Above Water’, a sculpture designed to provoke discussion around mental health discrimination.
The series progresses from the standing figure carrying the burden on their shoulders to the sitting figure resting against it, highlighting that whilst it may not be overtly visible it is often not far away.
“Many of us carry issues and burdens that hold us down and hold us back. For some, these are crippling, and for others they even lead to taking their own lives. These burdens can start so young and appear insurmountable, unresolvable. But so often, communication is the key to unlocking the journey forward”, — Steuart Padwick
Talk To Me Voice Collaborators — Niamh Cusack, Rachel Joyce, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Adam Kammerling, Tom Goodman-Hill, Barney Norris, Stevie Basaula, Afolabi Alli, Chris Thorpe, Joelle Taylor, Nigel Cooke, Sévan Stephan, Kirsten Irving, Olly Todd, William Wollen, Beth Maureen Cooke, Azariah France-Williams, Leigh Ballard, Giles Addison, Katie Conibear, Anthony Fernandes, Errol McGlashan, Clive Buckenham, Raga Gibreel, Amy C Wilder, Miroslav Holub, Martha Roberts, Christopher Eccleston, several anonymous. Miroslav Holub, ‘The door’ trans. Ian Milner (Bloodaxe Books, 2006).