Ian Wornast: Nine Elms

2022

‘Nine Elms’ by London based artist Ian Wornast is a new temporary artwork at Nine Elms Underground station.

A large-scale, highly detailed, pen drawing shows an abstracted cross-section of the underground station – its architectural form, structure and use stylistically presented as a mosaic of colour and pattern. The work is on view in the station as a temporary poster artwork at platform level and as a free limited edition foldout artwork. This poster will then travel from the station into the neighbourhood – into homes, community spaces, business and further afield!

Ian Wornast’s project was chosen by the Nine Elms community in March 2022 as part of Make Art in Nine Elms, an open call with a community selection process in which seven local artists were chosen to develop new work for the Nine Elms arts programme.

Ian Wornast is passionate about London, the history, the urban landscape, the changes and developments and particularly the public transport system. Ian’s bold, highly patterned drawings are personal geographic mappings of the city. He incorporates elements of the design and colour of the transport system and creates connections and links showing London through his own lens.

Ian’s work has a strong and unique visual identity – recognisable instantly by its striking lines, patterns and logos. Yet, he is also prolific in his experimentation. Like urban developments, in his art he likes ‘things to be moving forward, not going back, to keep progressing’. His drawings encourage you look closer: at the artwork and at the world around you,

This work at Nine Elms Underground station is part of a series of large-scale public artworks by Ian Wornast to be exhibited around Nine Elms and Battersea. Other locations include the Nine Elms noticeboards, located near the Nine Elms Pavilion, on Condell Road and Battersea Park Road as part of the Totally Thames Festival. Along Merchants Way which runs through New Covent Garden connecting Nine Elms to Underground station to Ponton Road and Nine Elms Lane.

Ian Wornast is a resident artist at ActionSpace, a London based supported studio and development agency for learning disabled artists. They support, advocate and promote diversity within the contemporary visual arts sector and they have big ambitions for the artists they work with.  www.actionspace.org

Commissioned by Wandsworth Council, produced with support from Art on the Underground.