The latest Platform for Art exhibition, made especially for Piccadilly Circus station by artist Anthony Gross, features a digitally rendered forest made up of dense, leafy trees in a rainbow wash of colour.
The forest is entirely made on computer, constructed by combining dozens of digital trees. The branches and leaves are like digital code, thousands of polygons connected in three-dimensional structures. From across the ticket hall the effect is a dense layering of bold colours revealing on closer inspection the crisp coloured shapes of literally millions of individual leaves.
The installation in the station presents a sumptuous panorama based on the tradition of the diorama. Similarly to those presentations of historical scenes or views of distant countries, the images at Piccadilly Circus present a landscape that is part familiar, part fantastical and which remains tantalisingly out of reach.
Gross’ work is a response to our media-based society and the affect of digital media on contemporary culture. He frequently draws on references from pop videos, computer games, film and advertising. Working with cutting-edge techniques and processes he often customises ready-made, three-dimensional models sourced from internet communities. Through his rendering of a virtual forest vista in Piccadilly Circus, he brings an idealised, but clearly artificial, version of a natural landscape into the frenetic environs of a central London Tube station.
Anthony Gross studied Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, gaining both a BSc and an MA in Architecture, before completing an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. He lives and works in London and has shown widely in group and solo exhibitions in London as well as other national and international venues. He is also co-founder and curator of artist-run space temporarycontemporary, an independent project space in South East London.
