The 25 million London Underground (LU) passengers who
pass through Southwark and London Bridge stations during the next six months
(19 July 2007 – 19 January 2008) will be treated to a surreal art experience which celebrates the heritage of
cookery and Underground travel.
Taking its title from Jules Verne’s eponymous novel
that illustrates an extraordinary underground world and refers to bodily
digestion and the cooking of the earth, artist ayle Chong Kwan’s project Journey to the Centre of the Earth weaves together science-fictional ideas of escapism,
imaginary subterranean travel and sensory worlds with the capital’s gastronomic
heritage. The project also brings together
people from many of London’s distinct and varied cultures to delve into
their personal culinary histories as well as that of LU.
London Underground had a colourful relationship with
food and catering – a heritage borne out of a large and hungry workforce.
During the Blitz, Tube trains took food to people sheltering in Underground
stations. For the project, Gayle Chong Kwan
and Underground station staff revisited this culinary heritage and the results
can be seen through Journey to the Centre
of the Earth, which comprises three large-scale art works:
- Hollow Earth -
a spectacular new
billboard of an other-worldly food-scape wrapped around Southwark Tube
station. Using images of food that
grows underground and based on seventeenth century ‘hollow earth’
theories, it features a starry constellation mapped upon sensory food
tasting sessions
developed with participants;
- Core - a dramatic, all
encompassing red volcanic landscape made from food blended against night
skies that references the journey into the actual core at the centre of
the earth. The work entirely
envelops London Bridge tunnel, sloping into the underground to create an
imaginary journey to the ‘centre of the earth’; and
- Intra - a fantastical window
display at the entrance of London Bridge station, which provides a gateway
to Borough Market. It connects the
experience of eating as a journey into the packaging and foodstuffs from
the celebrated market.
Additionally, a selection of works created by Chong
Kwan, Borough Market traders, LU staff and Southwark College students will be
on display inside Roast, the restaurant at Borough Market.
Midnight Feasts and sensory tours by Tube
Chong Kwan’s project
participants made ‘sensory’ Underground journeys, travelling the Tube on a
mission to develop fantasy voyages that inspired their work. A series of six talks and guided tours of the
exhibitions will take place in August 2007.
These include tasting sessions at Roast and Borough Market.
