Docklands Light Railway has appointed Toby Paterson as principal artist on the design team for the Stratford International Extension (SIE), working alongside architects Weston Williamson.
The appointment of Toby Paterson contributes to his growing national and international reputation based on many prestigious international exhibitions and public commissions, including a major commission for the new BBC headquarters in Glasgow, designed by David Chipperfield architects.
Toby was selected by a panel that included representatives from the Olympics Delivery Authority (ODA), London Thames Gateway development Corporation (LTGDC) and the London Borough of Newham (LBN). Key strands in the artist's practice were considered particularly pertinent to his role on the SIE design team. A large part of Toby's working process involves the exploration of cities. Much of his work in the past, both gallery-based and publicly sited, has explored routes taken through a built environment, and the examination of what is encountered along the way. Not least, the concept behind much of his work is that it is viewed not from a fixed point, but in a continuous way as the viewer's perspective shifts in space.
The SIE, opening in 2010, will play a key role in the transport plans for the 2012 Olympic Games and act as a catalyst for regeneration in East London. The extension will run from Stratford International to Canning Town connecting to the Beckton extension and the planned Woolwich Arsenal extension. The 6km line incorporates three existing stations (Stratford, Canning Town and West Ham) and four new stations (Stratford High Street, Abbey Road, Star Lane and Stratford International).
Toby's appointment to the design team presents the opportunity for an artist to be involved in permanent integrated commissions for the overall design of the new line, as well at specific locations at individual stations. His role in the design team is to consider and advocate the integration of art into the architectural and design elements of the three existing and four new stations, within the design team's overall remit to deliver design quality and create a lasting cultural legacy.
The design team's aim is to integrate functional, technical and aesthetic requirements. The process will look at every aspect of station and route - from glazing to seating - as sculptural objects, with the aim of making a strong visual statement that will also encompass interpretation and presentation of the stations in their local, historical and social contexts.
Toby's work on the project began in late 2007 with an intensive period of research within the areas surrounding and served by the line, a process he describes as 'mining' the landscape for forms and ideas in locations both significant and seemingly insignificant. His desire is to directly reference the locale whilst simultaneously augmenting it, exploring a disparate range of historically interesting locations, the area's contemporary situation and its future plans. Using elements such as map extracts and the elevations and plans of buildings past and present, he is developing a visual identity for the line subtly rooted in the area that surrounds it.
Toby comments:
'For me the most striking aspect of the challenge .is the need to establish a coherent identity for what I do throughout the line, whilst simultaneously developing individual expressions of that identity at salient points along it. My intention is to evolve a visual vocabulary drawn from a variety of sources directly relevant to the line and the area of London it will serve. This approach can offer an exciting and visual rich system that allows room both for coherence and surprise'.
Over the coming months the evolution of the artist's ideas will be tracked on these pages.
For more information regarding the DLR Stratford International Extension
please click here.
