Resting on young shoulders, a white coffin is carried through a youth centre in southeast London.
The scene looks like a funeral. That is the intention – but it is something else entirely.
Inside the coffin is a large sculpture: a bloodied knife carved with the skyline of London. The imagery is stark.
A group gathers around the coffin to take it in. Some of them are in tears.
It forms part of a new anti-knife crime project titled Re-claim, created by multimedia artist Eugene Ankomah and designed to shine a light on teenagers “lost to the streets”.
Mr Ankomah says the reaction from some visitors has been emotional.
“I have had young people who have carried knives in the past come into this venue, and some of them have broken down crying,” he said.
“That’s what I want. I want them to have a change of heart, a change of mind.”
The installation, based at the Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey, takes visitors along what Mr Ankomah describes as an “incident trail”, guiding them through a simulated crime scene.
One young person, dressed in a forensic suit, explains: “The idea is for visitors to experience what a crime scene feels like.”
Mr Ankomah recognises parts of the project may be difficult for some people, but says “this installation is consciously confrontational”.
“This is a fight, and we have to keep fighting in every possible way,” he said.
“The more innovative it is, I think the better.”
The campaigner who was jailed for knife attack
Inside the main installation room we meet Michael Jibowu, who once carried a knife himself.
In 2022, he was jailed for stabbing a teenager three times in the neck. His victim survived.
Four years on, Mr Jibowu now campaigns to raise awareness about knife crime.
The 24-year-old said he has a direct message for those who carry knives.
“Every single person I know that’s carried a knife, they’ve either ended up dead or in a prison cell. Take it from me, I’ve gone to prison for stabbing someone.
“You don’t have to listen to me, but the choice is yours. If you want to carry a knife, be ready for the consequences. I’m not saying it to scare you, I’m saying [the] reality.”
The latest figures show knife crime has fallen over the past year, dropping below pre-pandemic levels, but offences are still more than 50% higher than a decade ago.
The government has committed to halving knife crime within a decade as part of its Plan for Change strategy.
But Mr Jibowu believes statistics alone cannot explain the issue.
“Data helps,” he said. “But we need to understand the individual, why they are carrying knives. The key question we have to ask ourselves is why?”
Helping heal knife victim’s mother
It is a question Sylvia Kane has been asking for two decades.
Her son, Eugene, was 16 when he was stabbed to death in Mitcham, south London, in 2006.
Kane says engaging with projects like this is painful, but also part of her healing.
“I think artwork like what Eugene Ankomah has done can stop knife crime because it is so powerful,” she said.
“It is so visual. It touches your emotions in a way that other campaigns may not be able to.”
Whether initiatives like this can influence behaviour is difficult to measure.
What they do offer, however, is space for reflection, community and dialogue – and perhaps, for some, a chance to choose a different path.
