tubechallenge.com

Labyrinth
A major artwork commission for all 270 stations to mark the 150th anniversary of London Underground

Mark Wallinger, one of the UK’s leading contemporary artists, has created a major new artwork for London Underground to celebrate its 150th anniversary. The result, commissioned by Art on the Underground, is a multi-part work on a huge scale that will be installed in every one of the Tube’s 270 stations. Wallinger sees the commission as a unique opportunity to explore the potential of the Underground as a whole.

Wallinger has created 270 individual artworks, one for each station on the network, each one bearing its own unique circular labyrinth, but with a graphic language common to all. Rendered in bold black, white and red graphics, the artworks are produced in vitreous enamel, a material used for signs throughout London Underground, including the Tube’s roundel logo, whose circular nature the labyrinth design also echoes. Positioned at the entrance of each labyrinth is a red X. This simple mark, drawing on the language of maps, is a cue to enter the pathway. The tactile quality of the artwork’s surface invites the viewer to trace the route with a finger, and to understand the labyrinth as a single meandering path into the centre and back out again – a route reminiscent of the Tube traveller’s journey.

Each of Wallinger’s Labyrinth artworks bears a different number, written in the artist’s hand. For the collector or the train-spotter in us, there’s something appealing in this cryptic element of the work. Although the numbers resonate with the tradition of editioned artworks, such as prints made in series, in fact they relate to the ordering system that allocates each artwork to its particular station. This numbering scheme brings an internal logic to this vast collection of artworks that is directly connected to a real, albeit highly unusual, Tube journey. They refer to the order of stations visited in the Guinness World Record ‘Tube Challenge’ 2009, the record for the fastest time taken to pass through every single station on the London Underground network.

The Guinness World Record Tube Challenge was completed by Andi James, Martin Hazel and Steve Wilson on 14 December 2009 in 16 hours, 44 minutes and 16 seconds. James and Wilson are also the current record holders, completing the challenge in 16 hours, 29 minutes and 13 seconds on 27 May 2011. Participants do not have to travel along all lines to complete the challenge, merely to pass through all the stations on the system. They may connect between stations on foot, or by using other forms of public transport.

Going Underground wrote:
This is really quite shocking I cant for one minute imagine that they consulted the current GWR holders

Nigel wrote:

Going Underground wrote:
This is really quite shocking I cant for one minute imagine that they consulted the current GWR holders

So where did he get the information from? The only other possibility is from GWR?

greatkingrat wrote:So if anyone wants to know the route, they just have to visit all the stations and make a note of the number of each one!

joy54 wrote:

greatkingrat wrote:So if anyone wants to know the route, they just have to visit all the stations and make a note of the number of each one!

Well they would only get the 2009 route, the article seems to imply the route used for the 2011 record run was different.

Going Underground wrote:Hmmm I guess that Regents Park is 59, Picc Circus 61 and Charing X 62....

This is really quite shocking I cant for one minute imagine that they consulted the current GWR holders

joy54 wrote:

Going Underground wrote:Hmmm I guess that Regents Park is 59, Picc Circus 61 and Charing X 62....

This is really quite shocking I cant for one minute imagine that they consulted the current GWR holders

From this I calculate this is exactly the same route (or start at least) which I developed to use for me, Andi and scrxisi on the record breaking day back in 2008. As Hakan once managed to correctly deduce this was a loose amalgamation of parts of one of his routes and parts of one of the Brown's routes.