Troika's The Weather Yesterday installation takes on a national pastime

The northwestern European compulsion to discuss the weather perhaps arises from the fact that, in these parts, you can rarely predict it; oh, to live in a place without four seasons in one day! But it does mean that there’s always a guaranteed topic for small-talk, and Troika is generating further discussion with their tongue-in-cheek outdoor installation, The Weather Yesterday, on London’s Hoxton Square.

The public artwork takes the form of a typical weather-forecast symbol, and displays how the weather was exactly one day before. It playfully emphasises the fleeting nature of our interest in what the clouds are doing; we glance at this and think, but why on earth do we need this information now? It’s also a clever exploration of our reliance on forecasting apps and internet-searches and our associated disconnectedness from nature; should we always look at a screen for this kind of information, or are we better off going outside and trying to gauge the air, or interpret the way the cows are sitting? (Or in this case, Hoxton Square picnickers?)