New Station Artwork Designed by Turner Prize Nominee

A public art piece for a new railway station has been conceived by Mark Titchner, a nominee for the esteemed Turner Prize. Mr. Titchner’s design for Cambridge South Station draws inspiration from the contributions of William Harvey, a physician and alumnus of the University of Cambridge. This public art component was mandated as part of the planning permission for the new station, with Network Rail submitting the design specifics to Cambridge City Council. The artistic brief called for a “significant public artwork that creates a dynamic focus for the new station, celebrates its global context and contributes to a coherent approach”. Additionally, Mr. Titchner has proposed the creation of animated digital artwork to complement the primary installation. Cambridge South, currently under construction on the Biomedical Campus, is set to become the third station to serve the city. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, three artists were invited for interviews, from which Mr. Titchner was selected to develop “Together We”. The project plans indicated: “Mark started thinking about circulation, connections and transport networks and systems.” Mr. Titchner conducted a search through ‘the writings of William Harvey’ to identify all occurrences of the word ‘together’, subsequently compiling a list of words that precede it. Examples include ‘drawn together’, ‘mingled together’, ‘arise together’, ‘combine together’, ‘unite together’. Mr. Titchner is slated to collaborate with the London Mural Company to produce the “Together We” poem. This artwork is intended for application on the balustrades of the stairwells in both the west and east station structures. Furthermore, digital artwork is proposed for display on screens located inside the station. Network Rail stated that the artwork would utilize durable, hard-wearing paint to ensure its longevity, adding that it could be retouched with the artist’s consent should it incur damage.