Internationally renowned artist Michael Craig-Martin was commissioned to develop a permanent artwork for the new Woolwich Arsenal DLR station. This ceramic artwork depicts a series of everyday objects - a mobile phone, a bunch of keys, a book - set against a background of vibrant colour. The content, though derived from Craig-Martin's vocabulary of images, has been selected and composed uniquely for Woolwich.
Despite the different scale and function of each object in reality, the tiled artwork renders each the same size, carrying equal importance, thus opening up the dialogue between representation and reality for viewers to interpret as they wish.
Craig-Martin worked closely with Mike Hornsby from Manor Architectural Ceramics to produce the work and each tile was individually screen-printed to attain a consistency of colour throughout the installation.
'It is an enjoyable challenge to work on an architectural scale, and I consider it essential that my work engages with the architecture in such a way that together they define the place. A work of this kind does not simply decorate a space but activates it. Good art is good for people.' Michael Craig-Martin
Street Life was the inspiration and location for a film by Jasmine Johnson and Marianna Simnett entitled Next Stage - a choreographed dance piece commissioned to celebrate the new station. Click here for more information on the film.
DLR Woolwich Arsenal won the Light Rail Awards, Project of the Year, 2009 and the ICE London Merit Awards, 2009.
Street Life is one of a series of permanent and temporary art interventions for the Docklands Light Railway, resulting from the public art strategy written by Modus Operandi.
See: DLR Art, the Public Art Programme for the Docklands Light Railway, curated and managed by Modus Operandi.
