Project 7: Gossip on The Barbican
The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.
"The gossip, man... the gossip!" Hume to Boswell.
This project replaced the painter's intention of proceeding with the two more projects 'Love and Humour' and 'Love and Tragedy', which indeed were never to come to fruition. Project 7 localised his enquiry into the notion that 'Gossip was the glue that stuck Society together'. Gossip, Lenkiewicz thought, was an entirely aesthetic activity. Indiscretion came second in the race towards feeling significant in one's immediate environment. But what exactly it was that came first was not so easily identified. In a sense this project was a hint and precursor to Project 10 on the theme of Self-Portrait.
large number of individuals in the Barbican area, from Community Policeman to window-cleaner, sat for Lenkiewicz. The exhibits were coupled with a text, a personal view of The Barbican and it's occupants written by each of the sitters. Project 7 was the first to be exhibited in the premises now holding his Libraries.