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Stub image for Jala Wahid's Slow Crush (2025). Commissioned and produced by Forma. Supported by The Ampersand Foundation, Henry Moore Foundation, and Arts Council England. Image: Forma and courtesy of the artist.
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ala Wahid's Slow Crush (2025). Commissioned and produced by Forma. Supported by The Ampersand Foundation, Henry Moore Foundation, and Arts Council England. Image: Forma and courtesy of the artist.
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Jala Wahid, Sick Pink Sun (03:00 14.10.1927 - ), 2022. Installation view: Conflagration, BALTIC, Gateshead. 2022. Courtesy and © the artist and BALTIC. Photo: Rob Harris.
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Jala Wahid, I Love Ancient Baby. Installation view: GAK, Bremen. 2023. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Franziska von den Driesch.
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Peveril Gardens, FormaHQ. Photo: Forma
Exhibition
just opened
Jala Wahid: Slow Crush
5 Jul 2025 – 30 Jun 2026
Regular hours
- Monday
- Closed
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- Closed
- Sunday
- Closed
Free admission
Address
- Peveril Garden Studios, 140 Great Dover St
- London
England - SE1 4GW
- United Kingdom
'Slow Crush' is a brand new public sculpture by Jala Wahid, commissioned by Forma. Installed for a full year within Peveril Gardens, 'Slow Crush' examines how histories are named, claimed, and politicised in the present.
About
Jala Wahid’s first public sculpture commission — Slow Crush — will be unveiled in FormaHQ’s Peveril Gardens, Bermondsey on 5 July 2025.
Wahid’s large-scale sculpture revivifies the remains of the ‘Hasanlu Lovers’ — two ancient male skeletons who held onto each other tenderly in the face of violent death. Installed for a full year within Peveril Gardens, Slow Crush examines how histories are named, claimed, and politicised in the present. Responding to its site, the sculpture emerges from the earth as an ode to the layered histories of diaspora, migration, displacement and queer resilience.
Standing over two metres tall, Slow Crush takes shape in fleshy-pink fibreglass, forming a heart-like gestalt of the two Hasanlu Lovers skeletons locked in an embrace. The phrase “dogged ecstasy” replaces one of the lovers’ teeth, while a playful kitten climbs their limbs — referencing the garden’s nocturnal wildlife, from prowling cats to birds of prey. Embedded amongst resilient, self-seeding, non-native plants, the sculpture reflects and builds upon its local ecology — the ever-changing diverse, urban landscape of Bermondsey and Peveril Gardens.
Join us for the launch on Saturday 5th July 2025!
