Output details

Linear

A multi-platform project engaging with the travelling public in the unique environment of London Underground (LU). Linear incorporated sixty pencil portraits of Jubilee Line Staff and sixty films recording the drawings being made. Central to the project was an expanded approach to portraiture, emphasising a tension between individual and group portraiture, between the presentation of the completed drawing and the ability to reanimate and unlock them ‘by watching the films on-line’, Linear extended methods of display and dissemination for Art on the Underground, including new media, further encouraging public participation in the project.

Linear was launched at the London Transport Museum (2010). It ran for twelve months across LU and was extended for a further sixteen months. There were key exhibition sites at Southwark, London Bridge and Stanmore stations; a group exhibition at City Hall ‘One thing Leads to another’; 5000 posters; multiple digital screens in stations and up escalators and 30,000 leaflets were featured across LU. A digital poster was included in Poster Art 150 - London Underground’s Greatest Designs (2013) at The Transport Museum 1 of 150 posters selected from over 3000 (with publication).

The Linear website has been visited by tens of thousands of people and a 30 minute selection of films and documentation were exhibited at Canary Wharf Screen (2013). Public talks at LU Headquarters (2010), City Hall (2010) and the National Portrait Gallery (2011).

LU estimates that around 4 million people use the underground each day, many of whom encountered Linear in some form or other.

Press includes:

Interview with Robert Elm, BBC London radio (2010); ITV London Tonight (2010); guardian.co.uk, Jonathan Jones 8/2/10; Review: One Thing Leads to Another, Everything is Connected by Lily Hall, artlicks.com June 2010; Art Feature: Drawing Projects: Dryden Goodwin interview with Jack Southern telegraph.co.uk 18/8/11.