£1million artwork to capture imagination of commuters

Crossrail

Crossrail Canary Wharf station. Pic: Crossrail

An impressive large-scale video art, including screens on elevator shafts and walls, will be installed inside the 250m-long new Crossrail Canary Wharf station.

The panels on the elevator shafts will represent the flow of human figures moving up and down like waves and will extend over two floors.

Other screens will show human figures moving on horizontal lines, reflecting trains coming in and out of the station.

In addition, commuters will be able to see the floor above and below through space left around the elevator shafts.

The art installation was created by Tel Aviv-born artist, Michal Rovner, who was selected by an advisory round table, working in collaboration with Pace Gallery and Canary Wharf Group.

Rovner’s past video installations have been exhibited at the Tate Gallery, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy Headquarters and Yad Vashem in Israel.

The work is part of Crossrail’s efforts to deliver art in central London stations by the time trains run in 2018.

Rovner said: “The composition of my work is inspired by the architecture of the place”.

“I have always been fascinated by people’s movement in time and in space. For me it always was a dream not only to show works in art galleries or museums but also actually to be part of public ground that has it’s own motion and it’s own action.

“I hope that my work will remind people [about] the time they take for granted, going from one place to another and that [the] space between, is actually very meaningful because, by coming here and by moving from one place to another, they are part of the magic of the human flow in time”.

The new Crossrail station will be built in dock water and will have links with the Jubilee and DLR stations.

The station is planned to be six storeys high and will include a landscape park, restaurants and community areas on the top. The opening is scheduled for early 2018.

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