Oil Stick Work, John Gerrard, Courtesy the artist and Art on the Underground

Dates: 13 May 2010 – 13 May 2011 | Location: Canary Wharf Underground Station, London

APEngine recommends the newly unveiled artwork by Irish artist John Gerrard which looms over the ticket hall at Canary Wharf Underground Station. The large-scale projection, entitled Oil Stick Work (Angelo Martinez / Richfield, Kansas), is a durational piece of immersive 3D animation, where topogrophies of an existing American agricultural landscape have been mapped onto 3D forms. The work develops in real-time over a 30 year period (2008 – 2038) marked by the central character, Angelo Martinez, painting a one metre square of the grain silo at the centre of the piece using an artist’s oil stick every day until the building is transformed.

Sally Shaw, Curator for Art on the Underground curator, said: “By sitting Oil Stick Work right under the financial heartland of the city, we get the uncanny juxtaposition of Angelo Martinez’s virtual task with the ‘electronic’ or ‘virtual’ trading of stocks and shares in Canary Wharf’s offices above ground. Commuters will be able to see the sun rising on this conscientious character every day of the year as he toils away below ground.”

The artwork was commissioned by Art on the Underground for the Jubilee line. Oil Stick Work at Canary Wharf is sponsored by XL Events.