Elizabeth Line: Integrating Art and Infrastructure (Part 2)
We continue our look into the public art on London's new tube line...
June 1, 2022
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
As discussed in our previous article, the art of the Elizabeth Line is a love letter to the city and all those who call it home. Far from breezy and passive, the works commissioned for the underbelly of London are visual representations of city life and all that it means. London is an international hub, multifaceted and multicultural, and some of the artists that have joined the Crossrail art project are international and renowned names, who have captured the city as observers. Not only does this permanent exhibit capture London from the perspective of its residents but also how those who perceive from the outside view it.
Paddington: Spencer Finch
Spencer Finch is an American artist who is best known for light installations which communicate his visceral and ethereal experience of day-to-day life. Finch utilises colorimetry, a scientific technique that distinguishes the concentration of coloured compounds in a medium, to recreate airspaces through installation, distorting perception whilst teasing viewers’ senses. For the Elizabeth line, he has created a colossal cloudscape over the 2,300roof of Paddington station. Encompassing 180 glass panels, the clouds were created by hand-constructed pastel drawings which were then blown up and digitally printed in white ceramic frit. The cloud canopy interacts with the sky outside and is thus ever changing above travellers’ heads, a constantly evolving sky scape that links the outside to the underground.
Canary Wharf: Michal Rovner
Michal Rovner is an internationally acclaimed Israeli contemporary artist who specialises in video, photo and cinematic art who has exhibited in museums across the globe including the Louvre, the Tate and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her contribution to the Crossrail permanent exhibit is the result of extensive research into the architecture and history of the city. The large scale video references the striking cityscape, its distinctive buildings, and the life and people that bustle amongst them: Transitions illustrates Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, and Nelson’s Column. Below are numerous and traversing lines of endless streams of people, representing the continual, meandering and variable rivers of commuters lying beneath the surface of London. The speed and pace of living in London is tangible in Rovner’s work; one can almost feel the energy of living and working in the city.
Tottenham Court Road: Richard Wright
Richard Wright is a British painter and installation artist who casts his creations directly onto the wall of his exhibiting galleries. Via intricately detailed and wonderfully abstract paintings, Wright crafts site-specific and temporary works that emphasises the delicacy, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Contrasting to this theme that usually defines Wright’s works, his contribution to the Crossrail project is permanent; it is an elaborate and geometric installation gilded in gold leaf on the ceilings above the escalators. Depending on whether you are ascending or descending, there is a subtle shift in the perception and experience of the work, and Wright’s aim was to provide a moment of preoccupation or delay in busy lives by creating something that steals your attention from the periphery of your vision.
In the first week of its opening, the Elizabeth line had more than 1 million commuters pass through it. With more works to come from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross, never has it been so exciting to ride the tube as it is now in 2022.
