eye opener
Pond Life: Albertopolis and the Lily London, UK The unique, pioneering programme, Art on the Underground, was created to bring the works of world-renowned artists into the public domain, changing the way travellers and commuters experience the city. The latest exhibition, Pond Life: Albertopolis and the Lily, by British artist Monster Chetwynd, is an immersive installation incorporating a series of five disc-shaped sculptures, four metres in diameter, along the length of a discussed platform on Gloucester Road tube station.
Monster Chetwynd, ‘Pond Life: Albertopolis and the Lily’, 2023. Gloucester Road station. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Image: GG Archard
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Each sculpture is populated with creatures – beetles, dragonfly larvae, tadpoles and tortoises – that appear to be constructing sections of the Crystal Palace. They show the underwater life of the submerged lily pads, their spiny network of veins playing host to the industrious wildlife. Lighting design studio JPLD has dramatically illuminated the discs like performers on a stage, each one carefully lit to bring out the character and immense level of detail on the individual pieces. JPLD Creative Director James Poore has been working with Art on the Underground and TfL for more than 20 years, and in that time has worked on a whole host of exciting projects – often unusual, regularly challenging, yet always rewarding. For Pond Life: Albertopolis and the Lily, JPLD looked to dial up the intensity of the white light on the discs, with a slightly different, cooler white colour temperature to emphasise the discs against the backlit arches and the effects at either end of the