TONIC FLOW: A Communal Chorus in Colour and Sound

What does it mean to gather, to listen, to make something new together?

Eleven young, sanctuary-seeking artists from Compass Collective and the Southbank Centre Youth Voices choir, collaborated with Maciver and Gunnell to co-design the work through shared workshops.

The artists, rooted in collective creativity, respond to the idea of a ‘future tonic’, offering drawings, words, patterns and melodies.

These fragments come together as an installation paving Mandela Walk, Level 2 – a bold pathway transformed by colour, collective vision and communicating the artists’ message.

Within it is an immersive soundscape weaving together the voices of the Southbank Centre Youth Voices choir with Gunnell’s. As you walk along, hear how their voices hold the emotional resonance of shared experiences and collectivity.

We have a memory
as clear as glass.
Ripple, relax, renew,
turning skies from grey to blue.

Youth Voices is a free, inclusive all-comers choir made up of children and young people aged nine to 18 who are curious about developing their love for singing, based weekly at the Southbank Centre.

TONIC FLOW is an invitation to pause and take part, to consider and experience how creativity and play can nourish us, how connection can sustain us and how together we can begin to make patterns for a brighter, more joyful future.

Compass Collective is an arts charity supporting young refugees and asylum seekers through creative projects. For this project, they brought together a diverse group of young people with lived experiences of forced displacement from ten different countries, for a project that celebrates welcomeness and offers a shared sense of belonging.