Labyrinth
Regular users of the London Underground can’t fail to have noticed a certain style of art work on display at every station in the system – and this is it.
Mark Wallinger created 270 individual but similar works, one for each station on the network. Each one has its own unique circular labyrinth, and is produced in vitreous enamel, a material used for signs throughout London Underground.
Positioned at the entrance of each labyrinth is a red ‘X’. This simple mark, says the artist, is an invitation to the viewer to trace the route with a finger, and to see the labyrinth as a single meandering path into the centre and back out again – a route perhaps reminiscent of the Tube traveller’s journey.
Mark Wallinger is a winner of the Henry Moore Fellowship and the Turner Prize for modern art, and his work has appeared all over the world, including the ‘Fourth Plinth’ in Trafalgar Square, London. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2001.
I photographed this particular work, numbered 64/270, at Waterloo station on London’s South Bank.
Labyrinth
Regular users of the London Underground can’t fail to have noticed a certain style of art work on display at every station in the system – and this is it.
Mark Wallinger created 270 individual but similar works, one for each station on the network. Each one has its own unique circular labyrinth, and is produced in vitreous enamel, a material used for signs throughout London Underground.
Positioned at the entrance of each labyrinth is a red ‘X’. This simple mark, says the artist, is an invitation to the viewer to trace the route with a finger, and to see the labyrinth as a single meandering path into the centre and back out again – a route perhaps reminiscent of the Tube traveller’s journey.
Mark Wallinger is a winner of the Henry Moore Fellowship and the Turner Prize for modern art, and his work has appeared all over the world, including the ‘Fourth Plinth’ in Trafalgar Square, London. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2001.
I photographed this particular work, numbered 64/270, at Waterloo station on London’s South Bank.