July 23, 2007

Platform for Art : Life is a Laugh

by Piers Fawkes

tube art

We all enjoy the art on the wall of the disused platform at Gloucester Road Underground Station in July at Gloucester Road Tube station in London - something to brighten up our journeys on a damp day in the city. We reported on Chiho Aoshima’s work there on PSFK before - and Beatriz Milhazes‘. The latest installation for ‘Platform for Art’ is Life is a Laugh by Brian Griffiths. The new commission includes a 7.5 meter wide panda’s head along with a 1970s caravan, a lamp post rescued from the M42, a pair of painted scaffolding ramps, a heap of sand, a stack of building blocks, a pile of used mattresses and a single bicycle. The Transport For London site says:

For this new sculptural installation Life Is a Laugh, commissioned by London Underground’s art programme Platform for Art, Brian Griffiths has constructed an epic 70-metre long site-specific artwork. Conscious of the transitional nature of both the site and its occupants the work taps into the character of this fleetingly captive audience, exaggerating a sense of expectation tinged with boredom, mental doodling and day-dreaming.

Griffiths’ interest in the theatrical is key to the selection and placement of the eclectic series of objects that run the course of the platform transforming it into a giant shelf-like home to abandoned detritus. Punctuated by melodramatic lighting intended to provoke an ‘activated’ viewing on the part of the audience, scale, materials and shape present a visual assault course encouraging the eye to scramble across the work from one end to the other.

Creative Review have a few photos here.

Platform for Art | Life is a Laugh | Transport for London

Article categories: Arts & Culture

Article Link | Add To Delicious Add To Digg Add To Stumble Upon | Email This | Print This Post |

Subscribe

About PSFK

    PSFK is a global trends and innovation company that helps its readers, guests and clients make things better. PSFK publishes websites and reports; hosts conferences and events; and provides advice and consultancy. Contact us.