Michael Landy creates latest Tube map cover for Art on the Underground

Michael Landy creates latest Tube map cover for Art on the Underground

The work is a tracing of the artist’s own hand in pencil.

LONDON.- A new work by artist Michael Landy, All my lines in the palm of your hand, the latest artist commission by Art on the Underground for the front cover of the Pocket Tube Map, is now available from Tube stations. The work is a tracing of the artist’s own hand in pencil; the creases and lines of the hand are represented by lines drawn in the various colours of the Tube map. In this way, Landy makes a direct relationship between ‘the artist’s hand’ and the Pocket Tube Map. We can read his palm and see how his personal journeys have left their mark there. Reproduced as a pocket artwork for millions of Tube travellers to hold in the palm of their own hands, the work has a humorous yet uncanny quality. Head of Art on the Underground, Tamsin Dillon, said: “I like the way that Landy brings us back to the physical workings of the Tube Map. His reference to the way that people write on their hands as an aid memoire is very much in contrast to current handheld technology – like GPS and Google Maps. We like to provide travel information to passengers in as many different formats as possible. The Pocket Tube Map is a traditional, ‘hands-on’ guide, which is still a great way to get around the London Underground system.” The presentation of this new work coincides with Michael Landy’s project for the Central line series, Acts of Kindness. Artist Michael Landy (b.1963) grew up in East London where he still lives. Throughout his life most of his journeys have started out on the Central line. Landy was inspired to be an artist when as a child a picture he had made was shown on the BBC TV programme Take Hart. After school he studied art at Loughton, Loughborough and Goldsmiths. Shortly afterwards he achieved acclaim as one of the Young British Artists who transformed the international art scene in the early 1990s. Landy’s major projects include Break Down (Artangel, 2001), where he destroyed all his material possessions. He made a painstakingly detailed list of everything he owned, totalling 7227 items. Then a team of boiler-suited helpers passed them all one by one along a conveyor belt to be shredded and granulated in a former C&A store on Oxford Street. He walked away with nothing but a pair of overalls. The experience led him to reflect deeply on the value of the small acts of compassion that connect us with others, and triggered his idea for Acts of Kindness. Landy is currently Associate Artist at the National Gallery. In recognition of his major contribution to contemporary art, he was made a lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008.