4 days ago
Voices from Dorset to be heard at one of London's busiest Underground stations
TUBE passengers at one of London's busiest Underground stations will hear voices from Portland thanks to a new sound artwork heavily influenced by the island.
Turner prize-nominated artist Rory Pilgrim worked with various people including staff and inmates at HMP/YOI Portland to create a 10-minute piece called Go Find Miracles which combines music and spoken word.
Some of it was recorded in one of Albion Stone's underground mines on the island.
It will play for a fortnight from today between 10am and 5pm on weekdays until Friday, July 25 along the moving walkway that connects the Jubilee and Northern lines at Waterloo Underground station.
The piece asks how we 'go beneath the surface to imagine new structures of repair and possibility'. It focuses on the role that Portland has played in shaping London, with stone from the isle being used to build many of London's most iconic buildings. Of course the island is also the site of two prisons and the former site of a prison barge and the Bibby Stockholm.
Expanding from Pilgrim's long-term collaboration with communities on Portland, Go Find Miracles features spoken reflections and poetry by Neurodiversity Support Manager at HMP/YOI Portland Holly Upton and east London-based Carina Murray. It is accompanied by music composed by Pilgrim and sung by soloist Robyn Haddon, alumni of the Prison Choir Project, and a further choir of singers. The lyrics and melodies were partly written with people from the Portland prison.
Holly Upton said: 'This has been an inspiring experience for both staff and prisoners. We're looking forward to seeing it come to life on the Underground. Working in a prison has its challenges, but you can make a difference.'
The piece was produced in collaboration with the Mayor of London's Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme (CCSaR), the Feminist Library in Peckham and the Prison Choir Project.
It is heard alongside visual artworks by Pilgrim on display throughout Waterloo Underground station and is accessible through a QR code on posters across the network. An expanded leaflet documenting the piece's development is available to collect from Waterloo Underground station.
Eleanor Pinfield, Head of Art on the Underground, said: 'We are delighted to be launching a new sound commission for the moving walkway at Waterloo Underground station, one of the busiest on the network. Pilgrim's collaborative approach has brought together voices from London and Portland to consider the miraculous in the everyday. This new audio work reminds us of the power of connection, to those around us in our communities and those we travel through the city with each day.'
