Dan Mitchell installs J.G. Ballard-inspired vinyl at Wembley Public Library for Brent Biennial

Dan Mitchell created a 43-metre-long vinyl print for the Brent Biennial, installed on the facade of Wembley Public Library in the Brent Civic Centre. The work features a quote from J.G. Ballard's 2006 novel Kingdom Come, with images inside the letters mirroring surrounding commercial branding. Mitchell, co-founder of the Artist Self-Publishers’ Fair and publisher of Hard Mag, draws on his past work as a housing fraud investigator for Brent Council in the 1990s, witnessing the area's transformation from post-Thatcher neglect to a cultural neighbourhood. The COVID-19 pandemic nearly halted production, but organizers persisted. Ballard's themes of consumerism, tribalism, and isolation resonated during lockdown, as London emptied and new rules emerged. Mitchell's practice involves digital print assemblages from web and media sources, rendered as posters, magazines, and sculpture. He emphasizes self-publishing's community role, contrasting it with art fairs, and notes the 2020 Artist Self-Publishers’ Fair moved online for September 26-27. The work reflects Wembley Park's public-private collaboration and managed culture, with vinyl imagery of people in unoccupied store windows.