Internationally acclaimed British artist David Shrigley designed the third of the pocket Tube map cover series of artworks commissioned by Platform for Art.
Shrigley’s image, an abstract tangle made up of the same coloured lines used on the Tube map itself, immediately references this iconic map. In typical Shrigley style, it takes the coloured lines and feeds them through his endlessly imaginative, creative mind and then serves them up as a simple chaotic scribble like a plate of exploding spaghetti. In this bright, anarchic and humorous work, Shrigley has subverted the reassuring order of the Underground map and turned it into a wriggling, teeming fiesta, echoing the absurd confusion of one of his comic characters when confronted by an extensive travel network.
Platform for Art Curator, Tamsin Dillon said: “This series of commissions for the Tube-map cover celebrates the superb quality and range of work being produced by established artists working today and continues London Underground’s tradition as a patron of the arts. I was delighted when David Shrigley accepted this commission: he has produced a funny, instantly recognisable work that will amuse anyone who uses one of the maps.”
The Tube map cover was Shrigley’s second commission for Platform for Art; he also produced a billboard commission for Gloucester Road Underground Station in 2003. Both projects were initiated by Platform for Art curator Tamsin Dillon.
