The Angel of History Speaks is the second work from Art on the Underground’s 2024/2025 Writer in Residence Kristel Tracey. Inspired by the ‘Angels of History’, a permanent work by Rosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan, above the stairs to and from the platforms at the Broadway entrance of St James’s Park station.

The Angel of History Speaks will be installed on the platform of St James’s Park Underground station as an artwork poster, launching April 22nd 2025 and on view for one year.

Kristel Tracey responds to Hastings and Quinlan’s work, drawing a line between the permanent artwork, Paul Klee’s painting ‘Angelus Novus’ from just over a century before and Walter Benjamin’s interpretation of that work, where he described the painting as an image of the ‘angel of history’. In this offering, Kristel imagines the voice of Walter Benjamin’s ‘angel of history’ speaking to us, the audience.

Kristel is a London based writer, mother and TfL’s Head of Stakeholder Advocacy and Engagement. Published in both print and digital formats over the years, Kristel’s writing style ranges from short stories, to think pieces and poetry. She is often inspired to write about the world around her, thinking about how to make the reader reflect on how to enjoy the beauty of it and make it better for everyone.

The Art on the Underground Writer in Residence is a creative opportunity for a TfL staff member to develop their writing by working with TfL’s contemporary art programme Art on the Underground over a period of six months.

The Writer in Residence programme aims to highlight and amplify the creative voices within TfL, creating engaging responses to Art on the Underground’s ongoing programme.

ANGEL OF HISTORY

We have grown weary of the ruin, tired of this infinite loop; we are propelled forward by the winds of your progress, yet we watch the same mistakes repeated.

Can we stop for a moment to rest our wings? May we take some time to tend to our hearts which have grown cynical, yet still yearn to be heard?

Stay with us for a moment, we do not have long. We have learnt the hard way that time waits for no one.

*

Our ears echo with the cries of the unheard, on whom this ‘progress’ is built. Will you slow down enough to hear them too? Your monuments and history books won’t remember them, but we bear witness. We try to collect fragments from the ashes, ancient knowledge of the unheard left scattered; fragments which you could use to cultivate something else.

What would a future look like that treated all living things as sacred? Our grief does not differentiate or care for your hierarchies. What if all life was seen as worthy of protection for its connection to other living things on this beautiful, broken planet?

One life does not destroy another without disfiguring itself.

*

Halls and walls of power may fall. What of the power that is contained within your own flesh and bones? What wonders humans have created in the name of love! What if you planted seeds of creation on the ruins of false idols, that need not be watered by the spilling of blood?

We cannot hold off the winds any longer, and you must be on your way. We leave you with this:

The future is yet to be written – if you were holding the pen, what would it be?

– Art on the Underground 2025 Staff Writer in Residence Kristel Tracey