Commissioned by London Legacy Development Corporation with East Bank for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Photo: Ben Westoby.
Michael Landy’s public commission Lemon Meringue was unveiled at East Bank, Stratford Waterfront in 2024. Borrowing the visual language of market stall signage, the outdoor installation plays with the codified language of traditional and contemporary Cockney rhyming slang to explore the creative history and identity of East London. Unique to east London, this vernacular form of speech replaces common words with a rhyming expression – instead of ‘stairs’, you climb ‘apples and pears’, instead of ‘knackered’ you're ‘cream crackered’.
The phrases and placement of the fluorescent signs are chosen to playfully signpost activities and buildings in the area, in what becomes a game or puzzle to unlock. ‘Custard jelly’ for ‘telly’ appears before the BBC building, ‘Bobby Moore’ for ‘score’ referencing the Westham football stadium nearby, and ‘Rosie Lee’ for ‘tea’ is displayed on a sign by the café. The signs reference the East End market stalls of bygone days, and also recall the bargain signage found in Landy's 1992 exhibition Closing Down Sale at Karsten Schubert Gallery.
The artwork reflects the area’s rich and creative past, while acknowledging the fluid ways that language can evolve. For the project, Michael Landy worked with spoken-word artist Jonzi D to create a handful of new terms that speak to more recent diasporic influences on this area of London.