Transport for London (TfL) will unveil later this month a new art installation by London-based artist Phoebe Boswell at Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Gate Underground stations, as part of its Art on the Underground programme. The piece invites audiences to consider how we relate to water and the natural world.
The new commission we move through scales of blue, comprises four photographic artworks running next to the escalators at Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Underground stations, with the images layered into complex sequences that are brought to life by customers’ movement up and down the escalators. It continues Boswell’s exploration of themes including water, freedom and migration through a Black feminist diasporic lens, and invites customers to reflect on their interactions with nature, even within a busy urban environment like London.
Following a public callout, Boswell photographed Black and non-white swimming communities underwater, with participants responding intuitively to her prompts. The history of the underground Walbrook and Westbourne rivers shares similarities with the development of the London Underground network, and the commission traces the notion of the waterway, evoking journeys and migratory routes to, from and within London, particularly for Black diasporic communities. The commission responds to the Black Swimming Association’s statistic that 96 per cent of Black British people don’t swim regularly and invites audiences to consider reclaiming water as a space of healing and renewal. It is guided by a hydro-feminist view that all bodies of water are connected and promotes a shared understanding of the world and the stories within our bodies.
During the process, Boswell gathered reflections from participants about their relationship with water, creating space for their stories. Fragments from these conversations are presented as a collective flowing text in an artwork guide available at Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Gate Underground stations. The commission will be on displays until spring 2028.
