World-class art for a world-class metro

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Karen Hasin-Bromley looks at two books celebrating how underground stations have been visually enlivened by art

The Transport for London (TfL) website states that ‘Art on the Underground’ is   ‘World Class Art for a World Class Tube’ and explains that TfL sees ‘Art on the Underground’ as ‘continuing the long-standing tradition that excellent art and design is at the core of London Underground's identity and services’.  The website also asserts that one of the aims of the programme is to strengthen the Tube’s links with the people it serves by engaging, encouraging participation in, and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of, contemporary art.

The series Art on the Underground by Black Dog Publishing, so far covers the Jubilee Line (One Thing Leads to Another Everything is Connected – a line taken from Richard Long’s limited edition print made for a Jubilee line project) and the Central Line (Central Line Series).

As Charlotte Bonham-Carter reminds us in the introduction to Central Line Series, the ‘London Underground remains one of the few areas of urban space in which total strangers are regularly thrust together in close quarters for a definite period of time’, and thus can be seen as creating a temporary  community.

These two books were published to accompany the public art projects that appeared on the Jubilee Line between July 2009 and October 2011 and the Central Line between 2011 and 2013. They are presented in the same format and follow pretty much the same content order:  an introduction to the project, some history, information and statistics about the tube line being featured and an overview of the ideas behind the artworks created for that line.

For example, facts include that on the Jubilee Line in the 15 minutes during peak time in the morning, more than 5,500 people will travel on the section from Canada Water to Canary Wharf, which represents more than 800 passengers for each of the seven scheduled trains.  There is also an interesting overview of some of the areas the train passes though, such as Dollis Hill and the Docklands. While the Jubilee Line celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2009, the Central Line is rather older, opened in 1900. It was known as ‘the Twopenny Tube’.  It offered one flat fare and was cheaper than the horse-drawn buses above ground.  Now the longest underground line, it serves an average of 792,548 passengers a day, connects 49 stations and spans 74 kilometres from west to east London.

Explanatory text, images and contextualizing information about the projects take up the majority of the books content.  In addition, commissioned essays explore the themes of the artworks. 

The artworks commissioned for the Jubilee Line were linked to London Underground’s core ethic of valuing time. They feature a time line from 1979 to 2009, together with an historical overview of various stops on the line by David Rooney and an excerpt from Samson Occom, who was one of the first indigenous North Americans to visit and write about London, presented by Matthew Stadler, a writer based in Oregon. There are seven projects – six  by the artists Richard Long, Dryden Goodwin, Nadia Bettega, John Gerrard,  Daria Martin and Matt Stokes,  and a publication distributed at London Bridge Underground station, entitled Timepieces, which came out of Goldsmiths college’s MFA Writing course.

For the Central Line the themes of communication, connection and exchange are tackled.  Essays are provided by Mark Pagel, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Reading and author of Wired for Culture, who writes on the theme of language; Federico Campagna, who works with Verso Books, on the theme of community; and a reprinted text by Kazys Varnelis, director of the Network Architecture Lab at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, who investigates patterns of communication and ideas of public space in the digital era. Five projects are detailed by the artists Michael Landy, Ruth Ewan, Ana Barham, Alice Channer, Bob and Roberta Smith, and Tim Newton .

Notes about the public programmes associated with the launch of each project are provided at the end of each book.

Beautifully designed and produced, with wonderful graphics (and endpapers) and a multitude of monochrome and colour photographs, these volumes, in addition to providing  a record of  public art being produced in London,  are a rich resource for those interested in the public art work they see and the artists  who created them.

One Thing Leads to Another Everything is Connected, edited by Charlotte Bonham-Carter, Louise Coysh, and Tamslin Dillon is published by Black Dog Publishing, 2102. 88 pp., 143 colour and mono illus, £12.95 hardback. ISBN 978 1 907317 89 7 £12.95

Central Line Series, edited by Charlotte Bonham-Carter, Louise Coysh, and Tamslin Dillon Hardback is published by Black Dog Publishing, 2102. 88 pp., 79 colour and mono illus, £12.95, hardback. ISBN 978 1 907317 90 3

Karen Hasin-Bromley