David Shearing - The Weather Cafe
The Weather Café was an immersive art installation created by David Shearing which ran in a disused shop in Leeds City centre for three weeks in 2017. The project was designed to create a digital and physical snapshot of the emotional climate of the city.
The Weather Cafe was staged in a disused shop in the Headrow.
This ambitious performance installation created an internal weather setting, which effectively brought the outside, inside. Audiences stepped through the door to an atmospheric weather environment inspired by wind, rain and clouds and created with ecological materials, dripping water, grass and plants. A constantly boiling kettle created fog, fans created wind and the lights changed with the weather. Visitors were invited to sit and enjoy a complimentary pot of tea and experience the environment and also listen, via headphones, to the voices of people who lived within or were connected to the city. These stories were interviews with people whose voices very often aren’t heard in the hustle and bustle of a busy city and were gathered by Shearing over a few months.
Working with Emmaus Leeds, Artlink West Yorkshire, Leeds Young Authors, First Floor, Heydays, Leeds markets and St George’s Crypt. Shearing collected over 100 interviews which became the central narrative of the café installation. The internal café weather was controlled by digital code and a weather station and mirrored the weather the city outside was experiencing.
The Weather Café was a finalist in the 2017 World Stage Design Awards (WSDA) in Taipei.
‘When you look at life, it is just like the weather… you have the good times… you have the bad times… you have the fair times…’ recorded participant. Weather Café
