Heather Phillipson’s giant sculptures of eggs on disused platform at Gloucester Road

Art on the Underground is back and this time it's a major commission, her first in the UK, by British artist Heather Phillipson for the disused platform at Gloucester Road Underground station.

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Unveiled today, My name is lettie eggsyrub fills the entire 80-metre area with various large-scale sculptures including two giant 3D eggs, a huge automated whisk, twelve 65" video screens and 16 printed panels alongside oversized suspended images. It conjures many understandings of the humble egg – as new life and possibility, as clichéd reference, as human-animal consumption, as cultural projection and much more.

"It enlarges the egg as a nucleus of conflict," explains Heather. "I wanted Gloucester Road station to become a parallel 'scape' – a subterranean disturbance, in which hyper-real, creaturely simulations and analogue counterparts dwarf passengers.

"Using the bold, simplified visual techniques of early computer gaming graphics, both stylistically and as an organising principle, the passing platform becomes a sequence of overlapping vulnerabilities and escape tactics, in which so-called human and avian – winner/loser – roles might reverse. We too begin as eggs. According to this logic, humans are also at the mercy of weaponised food, exposed embryos, dangling, leaking and mechanical equipment, unignorable disorder and potential revolt."

She adds: "Throughout, the egg recurs as a harbinger and taunt – not only as one of the most fundamental forms in reproductive systems and as representation of fertility, strength, birth and futurity, but also, crucially, (over)production, consumption, exploitation and fragility."

Heather Phillipson's My name is lettie eggsyrub will be on display for an entire year at Gloucester Road Underground station. To find out more, visit art.tfl.gov.uk.

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

Heather Phillipson, my name is lettie eggsyrub, Gloucester Road station, 2018. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. Photo: G.G. Archard

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