Transport for London (TfL) will unveil later this month a new art installation by London-based artist Phoebe Boswell at Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Gate Underground stations, as part of its Art on the Underground programme. The piece invites audiences to consider how we relate to water and the natural world.
The new commission – ‘we move through scales of blue’ – comprises four photographic artworks running next to the escalators at Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Underground stations, with the images layered into complex sequences that are brought to life by customers’ movement up and down the escalators. It continues Boswell’s exploration of themes including water, freedom, and migration through a Black feminist diasporic lens, and invites customers to reflect on their interactions with nature, even within a busy urban environment like London.
Following a public callout, Boswell photographed Black and non-white swimming communities underwater, with participants responding intuitively to her prompts. The history of the underground Walbrook and Westbourne rivers shares similarities with the development of the London Underground network, and the commission traces the notion of the waterway, evoking journeys and migratory routes to, from and within London, particularly for Black diasporic communities. The commission responds to the Black Swimming Association’s statistic that 96 per cent of Black British people don’t swim regularly and invites audiences to consider reclaiming water as a space of healing and renewal. It is guided by a hydro-feminist view that all bodies of water are connected and promotes a shared understanding of the world and the stories within our bodies.
During the process, Boswell gathered reflections from participants about their relationship with water, creating space for their stories. Fragments from these conversations are presented as a collective flowing text in an artwork guide available at Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Gate Underground stations. The commission will be on displays until spring 2028.
Boswell said: “It has been an immense pleasure to engage with both these public sites as spaces to consider waterways and our relationship to them. I have so much gratitude for all the participants who joined me in our underwater studio, for their generosity in bringing their presence and their stories to this work.
“The process of the gathering is always revelatory and transformative; we are all unique and infinitely whole, and yet intricately connected and interdependent across histories and geographies. This ultimately informed how I shaped each tableau figuratively within the liquid abstraction of the water, with each person’s journey flowing fluidly into the next. I hope the work brings a moment of pause, breath and reflection during people’s commute.”
Eleanor Pinfield, Head of Art on the Underground, commented: “Phoebe Boswell’s new artwork engages deeply with the idea of the Underground as a series of connections. Situated alongside escalators in the east and west of the city, Boswell’s sublime images connect us to hidden waterways in the city and allude to journeys – over water, through generations – of those of live in London today. With resonances to the history of animation and participants gathered from the local area, Boswell’s reflective work will engage millions who pass through the stations over the course of its display.”
Last year, Art on the Underground celebrated its 25th anniversary and launched works including an installation at Stratford station by Ahmet Öğüt, which reflects on art’s power to save and transform lives.
Art on the Underground recently launched a new edition of its Art Map, showcasing the rich and diverse Art on the Underground commissions that have joined existing artworks on the TfL network since the Art Map was first released back in 2016. The latest version of the map provides customers with a guide to visit all the 26 permanent artworks which are now on display across the London Underground network.
2026’s programme is sponsored by specialist recruitment company, Reed, as part of its ongoing commitment to Art on the Underground. This year’s programme is inspired by subterranean histories, lost voices and hidden work, exploring historic imbalances under-representation, and reframing public space.
Following the launch of Phoebe Boswell’s commission later this month, American artist Ellen Gallagher will explore colonial landscapes and marine mythology in her design for the 42nd pocket Tube map in June.
Image credit: Phoebe Boswell
