Art on the Underground: Laure Prouvost Commission

For Turner Prize winning artist Laure Prouvost, the word is art. Her work deals with translation, language and storytelling in unconventional ways through installation, sound and video. A commission by Art on the Underground will now see her work peppered across London’s 270 tube stations in the form of posters and paper maps.



The posters will be in the iconic Johnston typeface used by London Underground’s signage and will mix fragments of imagined narratives with references to the transport system’s traditions, reminding us of both our subterranean position and our own selves. One poster reads ‘you are deeper than you think’. Another states, ‘ideally these words would pause everything now.’

Prouvost’s pocket tube map cover design is the 30th such commission. In hand-painted letters it states, ‘In Grandma’s dream this map would always be with you and would resist the passing of time’. Such poetic sentiments will surely cause travellers to pause for a moment, as they go about their daily commute and proves that in London art is everywhere. Prouvost's posters will be on view until 15 December.