01 April 2025
Shown for the first time, a bespoke jewellery piece in Waymarkers depicts the strength of community care and friendship.
Waymarkers, a new, free exhibition from artist and anthropologist Liz Hingley, is now on show until October in The Curiosity Cabinet at 171 The Strand. The works inside, created from thousands of personal images printed onto SIM-scale glass as part of the multi-year SIM Project, include a collective mosaic, a slideshow projection and an elaborate jewellery piece, shown for the first time as part of this display.
The project uses the SIM card as a tool to explore and grow personal networks of mobility and migration. It has travelled to eight countries—from Finland to Cyprus to the USA—and has been enriched by the creativity and contributions of hundreds of participants with roots in over 40 countries.
On display for the first time in The Curiosity Cabinet, the stunning jewellery piece was inspired by The Portland Global Friendship Group and the international trade of Portland stone. Formed in response to fear and hostility surrounding the arrival of the Bibby Stockholm barge - designated temporary accommodation for hundreds of men within the asylum system - the group’s mission was simple: to welcome the men to the island and keep Portland kind.
In intimate workshops, mobile phone photographs were selected by residents of Portland and the Bibby Stockholm, capturing shared moments—activities, views, hugs and laughter—then printed onto glass models, framed, and intricately knotted together with silver thread into a net-like structure around a central core of Portland limestone fragments. Highly prized and extensively quarried Portland stone has been exported to construct some of the world’s most powerful landmarks, from the UN headquarters in New York to St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The delicate metalwork echoes the protective embrace of a shawl and the interwoven chains of battle armour to reflect the strength of community care and friendship. Exhibited alongside quotes from the group, the piece is visible from the street on the corner of the Strand.
An illuminated mosaic made from thousands of SIM artworks created by people with roots in over 40 countries is also featured in Waymarkers. A peephole in the door provides an enlarged view of individual SIM designs projected on the internal walls of the exhibition space. Participants' words frame the installation alongside hieroglyphs of the project's bespoke camera and miniature darkroom kit.
“Out of adversity, a really beautiful thing grew. We have become a better community because of the men.”
Laney, founder of the Portland Global Friendship Group
Waymarkers will be on display in The Curiosity Cabinet until October 2025, with events during London Design Biennale. There will also be a series of workshops with the National Portrait Gallery in dialogue with their miniature painting and tin-type photography collections.
“I hope that Waymarkers offers people a moment of reflection into what gives them meaning in their busy digital lives, and a curiosity to befriend people with different backgrounds, gifts and languages to their own”
Liz Hingley, Artist and Anthropologist
The SIM Project
The SIM Project highlights the smartphone SIM card as a universal symbol of connection and a vital tool for building local and international relationships. Founded by Liz Hingley in 2017, it has evolved over the past eight years, with initiatives that include the King’s College London research project The SIM Project: Illuminating networked belonging in migration, a collaboration between Dr Zeena Feldman (Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture) and Liz Hingley. The project probed the relationship between smartphones, belonging, visual culture and migration.
Lost & Found: Stories of sanctuary and belonging
Waymarkers is supported and produced by King’s Culture. It is part of Lost & Found: Stories of sanctuary and belonging, a free programme of arts and ideas at King’s College London, presented by King's Culture and created with artists, researchers, academics and communities from London and beyond.
Lost & Found explores themes of refuge, resilience, and the search for safety in a world facing significant social, political, and environmental challenges. It reflects King’s status as a University of Sanctuary and has been inspired and informed by King’s life-changing research and commitment to building peace and justice in a turbulent world.
The Curiosity Cabinet
The Curiosity Cabinet is a space created by King's Arts & Humanities, with a programme produced by King’s Culture. It tells the story of some extraordinary research being done by King's staff and students using the physical and digital objects that have inspired or emerged from it.
Partnerships
The SIM Project evolves with the skills and dedication of a team including designer Egemen Kilizcan, photographer Frank Menger, jeweller Sofie Boons, and many others. Thanks to 4JET for their ongoing sponsorship of glass models and to the University of West of England for support.
Together with partners Counterpoints Arts and Kings Culture, the project seeks to nurture understanding and help shift hostile narratives through arts.
Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture
Join The SIM Project workshop! Hand stamp a meaningful number onto a SIM-sized plate and pin it to our world map of personal...
