Workshop Aims: For participants to consider an environment they probably usually pass through without thinking about. To create a series of drawings or proposals which reflect on the activity or environment of Wimbledon train station.

Duration: 2 hrs, meeting at Wimbledon station, inside the main entrance at 10:45am.

Materials: Sketchbook, assorted pens, pencils, whatever media you might want to use to reflect on activity or the environment of Wimbledon train station. Don’t feel limited to traditional drawing materials. Cameras and the taking of photos/ filming is not permitted during the workshop(on the instructions of South West Trains).

References:
Here are some references to artists who have either made work in response to travel, or make site responsive work, which involves drawing and line, but not always with pen and paper…

Catherine Yass, Highwire http://www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2008/high_wire
Ortelius Drew: http://orteliusdrew.com/web/orteliusdrew/portfolio
Francis Alÿs, Seven Walks
http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/2005/seven_walks/about_the_project/about_the_project
SImon Patterson- the Great Bear
http://maeveconwayfried.wordpress.com/texts/the-great-bear-by-simon-patterson/
Bach on Tour- Stian Ådlandsvik and Lutz-Rainer Müller.

http://www.openart.se/openart-en/bach-on-tour-a-concrete-glorification/

Outline

10:45am – Meet in ticket hall,
10:50am – Meet the duty manager at Wimbeldon station, and sign in
11am – Introduction to the workshop in the waiting room on Platforms 5&6
11:10am-11:40am –  30 minutes of observing activity around Wimbledon station, and making quick sketches/ identifying areas of interest.
11:40am- 11:55am – Return to waiting room, and in pairs, discuss what you have observed. Decide which idea/ sketch you would like to develop.
11:55am-12:40pm – Develop 1 longer sketch/ proposal
12:40pm – 1pm Return to waiting room to share work with the group

Outcome

This was an usual experience of an every day event. For rat’s years now I have been commuting/racing on London transport. This was on opportunity to stand and stare, not at the departures board but at the environment around it. Where to start? I rapidly tired of counting in the number of people not “touching in or out” as I chewed the fat with the gate attendant about what perks I could expect with my Temporary Station Pass.

Wimbledon has a number of different platforms for quite different trains, some pass through but for the District Line & the Croydon Tramlink “it’s the end of line”. I remembered whilst travelling abroad people telling me “if you really wanna see how real people live round here go out to the end of line”. I did this couple of times most memorably, in Boston I took the T to the end of the line, and stay at the misnomer that is Wonderland.

Well, here it was the end of the District Line in well-heeled Wimbledon. The same line I used to take to get to & from work in South Kensington, eleven stops away. As I sat down to sketch it I remembered some of the things I had seen & heard on this line. Not needing to rush & get a seat I started to notice the rhythms of the station & the numerous plants establishing a roothold at the end the line.

Weeds at the the end of the district line 10 Jan 13