Greenwich Pumping Station, London
Greenwich Pumping Station, London: Optical Flow, Lubna Chowdhary
Year
In development
Client
fereday pollard for Tideway
Artist
Lubna Chowdhary
Service
Commission Management
Location
Greenwich Pumping Station, London
A permanent commission for Greenwich Pumping Station
Lubna Chowdhary has been commissioned by Tideway to create an artwork in steel for this historic site in Greenwich, viewed primarily for two railway lines.
The ‘cultural meander’ or heritage theme for the East section of the tunnel in the Heritage Interpretation Strategy is ‘The Shipping Parishes – Gateway to the World’. Within this heading, the site’s narrative references the revolutionary impact of the railway and its social and economic impact on society.
Lubna has developed an artwork which responds to this site's specific history of railway signalling. The adjacent railway was London’s first railway, the line of the London & Greenwich railway, connecting London Bridge (opened in 1836) to Greenwich (opened in 1838), which catered for short distance intra-urban travel. The structure consists of 851 semi-circular arches and 27 skew arches or road bridges. It is the longest run of arches in Britain, one of the oldest railway viaducts in the world and the earliest example of an elevated railway line. At Corbetts Lane (just to the east of the site) there was installed first ever fixed signal used to control a junction.
The artist has conceived the commission to be activated by the movement of the train, with the primary viewpoint from the railway and DLR. The additional interpretive material (the artwork) is integrated into the access ‘gates’ of the cladding of the pressure relief and air inlet structure located on the shaft structure. It comprises a white, vitreous enamel, circular steel panel, 2m in diameter.
The disc will be revealed, from between the deep fins, as the train moves past and will then be concealed again. Due to the scale and colour it will also be visible by pedestrians and cyclists using the Quiteway. Care has been taken with the boundary treatments to ensure that it is as open as possible so views of the listed Pumping Station building are as unimpeded as possible. This has the benefit that the artwork will also be visible though the fence.
“A white disc was installed operated by the pointsman. This face on white disc, or at night, a red light, showed that the route was set for Croydon. If the disc was edge on, or a white light showed, the junction was set for Greenwich.”
The artwork provides a subtle visual response to the Heritage Interpretation Strategy, providing multiple glimpses as one passes by train. It will not be overtly dominant in the space heritage setting. It is anticipated that the scale, proportions and materials should accord with those of the adjacent buildings and structures, the listed pumping station and adjacent residential development. Its scale is modest and appropriate for this site where there is no public access.
For more information on the site’s history see Tideway’s Heritage Interpretation Strategy.
“...this is a subtle response to the brief and the Heritage Interpretation Strategy, which it is hoped will intrigue passing commuters / train passengers and users of the Quiteway.”
Lubna Chowdhary has Master’s degree in Ceramics from the Royal College of Art.
She creates sculptural objects and site-specific artworks, working primarily in the field of ceramics. She was shortlisted for the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize and has completed artist residencies at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Camden Arts Centre, London. She lives and works in London.
Her work is in a number of permanent public collections including, Cartwright Hall, Bradford, Leicester City Museum; Mead Gallery, Warwick: Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead; Nottingham Castle Museum; Abingdon Museum, Oxfordshire; Oldham Museum and Art Gallery; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Poole Museum, Fiorucci Foundation, Italy; Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi; Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Jameel Foundation, Dubai and M+ Hong Kong. Museum, New Delhi, Gallery of NSW Sydney, Jameel Foundation Dubai and M+ Hong Kong.
A major solo show of her work, Eratics, was held at MIMA in Middlesbrough and her work featured in Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art, at the Hayward Gallery in 2022.
For more information see: http://lubnachowdhary.co.uk
For more information see:
www.tideway.london