Commuters travelling on the new Elizabeth line across London will encounter major new works by Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross at Liverpool Street as part of the Crossrail art programme. Kusama will unveil her first permanent installation in the UK, entitled Infinite Accumulation, outside the station at the eastern entrance of the Elizabeth line at Broadgate. Funded by the property development company British Land, the piece comprises a series of polka dot shapes connected by undulating tubular rods.
Shawcross’s Manifold piece, a bronze work modelled on the Victorian harmonograph mechanical device, will be located outside the Moorgate entrance of the Elizabeth Line station. The work is funded by the property development company Landsec.
Digital rendering of Yayoi Kusama's Infinite Accumulation (2017) Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai and Victoria Miro, London/Venice
Crossrail Art programme includes ten public art works that will be unveiled at seven stations on the new Elizabeth Line: Spencer Finch (Paddington), Darren Almond (Bond Street), Douglas Gordon (Tottenham Court Road), Richard Wright (Tottenham Court Road), Simon Periton (Farringdon), Chantal Joffe (Whitechapel), and Michal Rovner (Canary Wharf).
London-based galleries are also supporting the scheme and their representative artists; Lisson gallery is backing the Finch project while Pace is behind the Rovner work, for instance. The City of London Corporation is providing matching funding.
The works, which will be unveiled from December, “will be installed in a variety of locations including halls, escalator shafts, platforms, and other public spaces”, a project statement says. All nine projects are presented in an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London (Art Capital: Art for the Elizabeth Line, 13 March-6 May).