Exhibition at City Hall
14 May - 10 June 2010
Nadia Bettega, John Gerrard, Dryden Goodwin, Richard Long, Daria Martin,
Matt Stokes, Goldsmiths MFA Art Writing students
Launch Event
Wednesday 19 May 2009
6.00 - 8.30pm
6.45 speeches
Venue
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
London SE1 2AA
Underground Station: London Bridge or Tower Hill
Please RSVP
art@tube.tfl.gov.uk
0207 027 8694
tfl.gov.uk/art
Getting to City Hall
One thing leads to another - Everything is connected' is an exhibition at City Hall. It brings together a new series of artists' works commissioned by Art on the Underground for the Jubilee line. The exhibition provides a glimpse of the projects on the line, and presents other works by the commissioned artists. It takes its title from a print by Richard Long that was given away to thousands of Jubilee line customers.
The print shows an image of the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, where the artist made a solitary walk, capturing features and elements that he encountered en route. This image contrasts significantly with the landscape in which London Underground customers encountered the final print at stations, from Stanmore to Stratford. This interplay between travel and place is a fitting starting point for the exhibition. It provides an insight into the connecting ideas between each artwork and the complexities of the Underground network in which they are located.
The artists were invited to make new works at a variety of locations on the Jubilee line, which was first opened in 1979. Since June 2009, they have been investigating ideas such as time, economics and travel and our changing relationship with them over the last 30 years. Each work brings a new understanding to these concepts in the context of the Tube. They provide insights into how we use our time when we travel, what broader ideas influence our reasons for travel and the nature of our individual and collective relationships with time and the network.
John Gerrard's real-time digital projection
Oil Stick Work (Angelo Martinez / Richfield, Kansas) at Canary Wharf Underground station links the daily labour of the eponymous Mexican-American to our above-ground speculative world of shares and commodity values.
Other projects in the series draw upon the individuals and communities that influence, inhabit or work on the Underground.
In
Linear , Dryden Goodwin has created an intimate and diverse social portrait of Jubilee line staff, through 60 pencil portraits of employees at work, and 60 films recording conversations and the drawings being made.
Nadia Bettega and young people from Brent Youth Inclusion Programme went on a week-long journey to explore portraiture and place through photography.
Daria Martin undertook a survey to research customers' daydreams on the Jubilee line.
Matt Stokes worked with East End performers to create a new multi-channel film work and intervention for Stratford station that draws from the heritage of entertainment in the area .
Finally, six artists and writers from Goldsmiths MFA Art Writing programme were "in residence" at London Bridge Underground station and have developed a collection of new writing inspired by their experiences and observations about travel.
By working with world-class artists to reveal unique aspects of the London Underground for its diverse customers, Art on the Underground delivers an award-winning programme of projects by contemporary artists. These commissions further London Underground's role as a leading patron of art over the last century, forming the newest layer in a unique history of exciting artworks that connect Londoners with London.
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