Transport for London (TfL) has unveiled new mosaics at St. James’s Park station as part of this year’s Art on the Underground programme.
The new permanent artwork has been created by London-based Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings and is called Angels of History.
The mosaic is made up of six 1.5 x 1 metre panels and has been installed in a prominent position in the station’s atrium.
Quinlan and Hastings create artworks which explore the relationship between public space, architecture, state infrastructure, gender and sexual identity, but this is the first time they have created a mosaic.
District and Circle lines station St James’s Park is more than a century and a half old, and is London’s only Grade I listed Underground station.
It is located beneath 55 Broadway, the bulding that for eighty years was London Underground’s Headquarters.
The famous art deco building was the tallest in London when it was completed in 1929, and was considered radical in design.
The creative duo chose to create a mosaic because it is a medium that was often used in post-war civic spaces. Their work takes inspiration from the Roman mosaic tradition.
The mosaic panels show figures set against a landscape of rolling hillsides. They depict isolated buildings: a row of post-war terraced houses, Art Deco skyscrapers, and 55 Broadway.
The work reflects on recent political change in Britain, against a backdrop of global conflict and political upheaval.
Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings Angels of History 2024 St James’s Park station Commissioned by Art on the Underground Photo GG Archard Courtesy of the artists and Arcadi
Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings
“We situated our angelic or prophet figures in landscapes that represent both rural and urban qualities: rolling hills, old weather-beaten trees, disorientating perspectives and wide open grassy plains alongside art deco skyscrapers, post-war council houses and a model of 55 Broadway. By combining them together in our artwork, these familiar landscapes become alienated with buildings taking on a sacred, temple-like significance.”
Responses
I’m surprised that it isn’t installed at Tate Modern museum or any museum in London that would have had those pictures. But it does look impressive.