Art on the Underground: Labyrinth

Last week I noticed a black and white maze on the wall next to the lifts at Caledonian Road station, it had a red cross and was numbered as if it were part of a series. After a bit of web searching (and then the discovery of a pamphlet) I found out it was one of 270 artworks by Mark Wallinger. The works entitled “Labyrinth” have been commissioned as part of TfL’s celebrations for 150 years of the London Underground. These pieces “drawing on the language of maps” encourage people to trace the labyrinth’s “single meandering path into the centre and back out again” with their finger, the idea being that it reflects a journey on the Tube network. There will be a Labyrinth installed in every station on the network (hence 270 of them). To add an extra bit of Tube geekery, the order in which they are numbered is the order of stations visited by the Guinness World Record holders (Andi James, Martin Hazel, and Steve Wilson) for the fastest time taken to pass through every station on the network. For more information (and a video) see the project’s website.

You can currently spot the artworks at the stations below (although this list will be out of date as more become installed. For an up to date list see here.

Alperton, Angel, Archway, Arsenal, Baker Street, Bank, Belsize Park, Bermondsey, Blackhorse Road, Borough, Bounds Green, Burnt Oak, Caledonian Road, Camden Town, Canada Water, Canary Wharf, Canning Town, Canons Park, Clapham Common, Clapham North, Clapham South, Covent Garden, Dollis Hill, Edgware, Embankment, Finchley Central, Finchley Road, Finsbury Park, Golders Green, Green Park, Goodge Street, Hampstead, Hatton Cross, Heathrow 1, 2, 3, Hendon Central, High Barnet, Highgate, Hounslow Central, Hounslow East, Hounslow West, Kentish Town, Kilburn, King’s Cross St Pancras, Kingsbury, London Bridge, Manor House, Mill Hill East, Neasden, North Greenwich, Old Street, Oval, Oxford Circus, Park Royal, Queensbury, St James Park, St John’s Wood, Seven Sisters, South Harrow, South Wimbledon, Stanmore, Stratford, Stockwell, Sudbury Hill, Swiss Cottage, Tottenham Court Road, Tottenham Hale, Totteridge & Whetstone, Tufnell Park, Turnpike Lane, Victoria, Walthamstow Central, Waterloo, Wembley Park, West Finchley, West Ham, West Hampstead, Westminster, Willesden Green.

Images are Copyright Thierry Bal 2013.