Transitions Catalogue Digital Edition

Labyrinth
Limited Edition Book, Plaistow
26cm x 52cm
2014
In 2013 Mark Wallinger, was commissioned to make a major new artwork for
London Underground to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Wallinger created 270
individual artworks, one for each station on the network, each one bearing its own
unique circular labyrinth, but with the design echoing the Tubes existing and very
familiar Roundel logo. Each Labyrinth is rendered in bold black, white and red
graphics, the artworks are produced in vitreous enamel, a material used for signs
throughout the London Underground network. At the entrance of each Labyrinth a
red X is marked inviting the viewer to start their journey tracing their finger within
the raised walls of the labyrinth through a single path, to the centre and back out
again mirroring the tube traveller’s own journey.
Labyrinth - A Journey Through London’s Underground is a record of Mark Wallinger’s
commission, documenting each labyrinth created in situ. The book also serves as a
celebration of the London Underground and of London itself, recording the diverse
face and fabric of the network and its users, in photographs while informing the
reader of the individual histories of each station.
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist widely known for his design for the Fourth Plinth of
Trafalgar Square in London, Ecce Homo (1999), a statue of a bound Christ. Wallinger
trained at the Chelsea School of Art and went on to study at Goldsmith’s College
in London, where her became involve with the Young British Artists movement. In
2007, he was won the Turner Prize for “State Britain”, a pile of banners and toys
placed outside the Houses of Parliament in protest against the war in Iraq. His work
is currently held in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the Denver Art
Museum, and the De Pont Museum of Contemporary in Tilburg, the Netherlands,
among others. His work is seen as a social commentary and often focuses on class,
royalty, nationalism and religion.