Traveling on London’s Tube is usually a time for me to get through a new album from start to finish, catch up on some reading that I’ve been avoiding in other parts of my day or just people watch for 40 minutes straight.
Fortunately, in a pleasant change, Art on the Underground will provide a new distraction. Since its launch in 2000, the program has commissioned artists to create works that brighten stations, pocket maps, and other transit spaces.
Have you seen the vibrant lenticular shapes at Tottenham Court Road? The labyrinth designs by Mark Wallinger found at 272 stations? They both belong to its legacy over the past 25 years. And now, four new artworks have been announced, set to be installed or unveiled throughout the year.
Stratford Underground Station will soon feature a large-scale artwork by conceptual artist Ahmet Öğüt. Titled Saved by the Whale’s Tail, Saved by Art, the piece is inspired by a remarkable incident from 2020, when a Rotterdam Metro train overran its stop and nearly plunged into a canal—only to be caught by a whale-tail sculpture by artist Maarten Struijs, saving the driver’s life.
As part of the project, the public will be invited to share personal stories of how art has saved lives. The most moving submission will be awarded a trophy-like sculpture. The installation is set to launch in March.
Additionally, Turner Prize nominee and composer Rory Pilgrim is creating a soundscape for Waterloo Station in collaboration with the Community Spaces at Risk (CCSaR) program, which supports cultural and community spaces facing sustainability challenges.
The composition is set to play for two weeks in July through the station’s speakers along the moving walkway between the Jubilee and Northern lines.
Meanwhile, Brixton Station will soon feature a vibrant new artwork by visual artist Ruby Loewe. Known for incorporating African and Caribbean folklore into her work, Loewe explores the British government’s efforts to suppress Black resistance movements of the 1960s and ’70s.
She is the ninth artist commissioned to respond to Brixton’s 1980s-era murals, with her piece set to be installed in November.
The fourth Art on the Underground project for 2025 will be the 41st Pocket Tube Map, designed by 94-year-old artist Agnes Denes.
This edition will feature an “electrified” reimagining of her 1980 work Map Projections, which transformed maps of the Earth into mathematical shapes like a torus. The new maps will be released in spring.