Gloucester Road Tube. Who ever uses it? Hands up. OK, maybe a few students from Imperial and the occasional lost tourist. Well, surprisingly, 13 million souls pour through this station each year.
A sizeable and distracted chunk of that number will be folks like Londonist, who loiter on the platforms staring at the walls. That's because, for several years now, Gloucester Road has been the shining beacon of LU’s laudable Platform for Art initiative. The brick arches of a disused District/Circle line platform are periodically filled with international artwork, making everyone’s journey that bit brighter.
The latest offering is a series of 19 colourful panels called Peace and Love, two things the Tube needs more of, by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes.
Beatriz Milhazes’ rich and complex work draws together motifs which have their roots in her everyday environment, and includes references to natural forms, folk art, carnival, and Brazilian baroque decoration. She transforms these influences into abstract patterns and ornamental shapes, which shift between the recognisable and the unfamiliar.
Beautiful. If you want to go along and take your own photos, remember to turn your flash off. We got a bit of a ticking off.
Oh, and you must have a play on TfL’s unbelievably entertaining Platform for Art Flash website.
Peace and Love can be viewed (between incoming trains) until 22 May 2006.
