'My work is simple and sophisticated at the same time..My picture of our society is that the things that unite us, at a very simple level, are the ordinary things we make to survive.'
Michael Craig-Martin

Acclaimed artist Michael Craig-Martin has designed a stunning major public artwork for the two-storey staircase of the new state-of-the-art Docklands Light Railway (DLR) Woolwich Arsenal station extension. Commissioned as part of DLR's major public art strategy, this is the first time that Craig-Martin has worked in ceramic and his first public transport project.

Michael Craig-Martin was invited by DLR to create a major work for this flagship new-build project, designed by Weston Williamson Architects, presenting an exciting opportunity for an artist's commission to be integrated within the fabric of the building, the DLR's 40th station.

Internationally renowned artist Michael Craig-Martin is well known for large-scale public commissions. Londoners will be familiar with his artworks at Regent's Place and at the Laban Centre, a collaboration with architects Herzog & de Meuron.

Visitors to the new Woolwich Arsenal Station now have the opportunity to see this major new commission, which opened in January 2009.

Michael Craig-Martin's artwork - Street Life - has been developed in response to the function and architecture of Woolwich Arsenal station. Integrated within the mosaic tiling of Greens End, one of the station's two entrances, the ceramic artwork depicts a series of everyday objects against a background of vibrant colour. The artwork encircles the entrance walls and the staircase well welcoming daily users and visitors alike, and inviting the audience to recognise a shared language of objects.

In the artwork, Craig-Martin explores the dialogue art can open between representation and reality, and between artist and viewer. Here a set of everyday objects - such as a mobile phone and bunch of keys, a book and a drinks can - have been drawn against a background of flat, intense colour. Despite their differences in size and function in reality, here each image is the same size and carries equal importance.

In the contemporary world those things have become ordinary things, Craig-Martin explains. They are so ubiquitous, so ordinary that you can really describe the modern world without those objects. Despite their differences in size and function in reality, here each image is the same size and each carries equal importance. As he explains, I like the idea of a democrac y among the objects. In the simplest way, reference is made to music, sport, eating and drinking, home and work. In order to achieve a vibrancy and luminosity for each ceramic tile, Michael worked closely with Mike Hornsby from Manor Architectural Ceramics in Warwick. Technically it was a challenging and time-consuming process as over 2500 tiles were individually screen printed to achieve the different colours specified and to attain a consistency of colour throughout.

Craig-Martin has always been concerned with a desire to make sense of the world we share, and the expressive power of the ordinary objects. The selection of these objects, their colour, spatial relationships and inexplicable juxtaposition provide the work's tension while providing opportunities for viewers to interpret as they wish.

'A public work of this kind allows an artist to speak directly to an audience that might never go to a gallery or museum.' Craig-Martin explains. 'A station is not itself a destination but a place to pass through to go somewhere else. But many of the stations' users will pass through it twice a day. I particularly hope this artwork will provide a stimulating note to the start and end of their journey over the years.'

The £180 million Woolwich Arsenal extension links Woolwich Town Centre with North Woolwich to provide easy access to the City and Central London. During the 2012 Games, DLR will serve the main Olympic Park at Stratford, as well as competition venues at Woolwich, Greenwich and ExCeL exhibition centre.