The Donut Sub-Collection is a fictitious art collection re-imagining six artworks from Canary Wharf’s public art collection as donut installations. Canary Wharf’s reputation makes it an unexpected location to house the UK’s largest free-to-visit public art collection. Donuts explore how public art is instrumentalised by Canary Wharf through a satirical guided tour; revealing the artificiality of Canary Wharf’s urban landscape, and showcasing the private nature of the site.

The ‘Sub-Collection’ expands beyond the estate boundaries through a manual: ‘So You Want To Be a Donut Tour Guide?’, weaving a critical and an exaggerated representation of the institution providing readers instructions to embody a donut tour guide. A film titled ‘11 Questions with a Donut Tour Guide’ envisions the future of donut-washed urban spaces through a Q&A with an unreconstructed acolyte of donut tours, commenting on the reality of art-washing for the monetary benefit of larger institutions.

By emphasising the autonomy of the public individual, The Donut Sub-Collection hopes to challenge the privatisation of public art through a deliciously subversive rebranding of London’s financial district.