The works from Lucy Harrison and Alan Kane will be the first in an ongoing series of contemporary projects from Art on the Underground, which has commissioned projects for the station in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Lucy Harrison has been working closely with local communities, businesses and individuals to explore and reveal the social networks that operate in and around the station and the nearby town. Her discoveries have been compiled in the form of a free newspaper with a difference.
The Stratford Grapevine depicts the minutiae of daily life in the area as it experiences the first waves of epic change as the Games approach. Issue one of the paper, available from the station and online from 17 July, contains exclusive interviews with the Newham Striders, an Origami competition and a feature on Midfield FC.
Alan Kane presents The Stratford Hoard. His eclectic series of exhibitions will reveal the private collections of people who live or work nearby or have a connection to the station. Three shows presented in museum-quality cases and large-scale visual will present personal hoards such as Elizabeth Parker's 1000 sugar cubes, Kacey Young's decorative souvenir teaspoons, and Tyler Harrington's 1980s printed milk bottles.
The commissions are the beginning of a new era of artworks for the station and highlight a new phase for the general Art on the Underground programme. Reflecting the station as a hub at the centre of a changing landscape, the artworks for Stratford will be social in nature. Many will involve the local community directly in their development and production, each producing a different portrait of Stratford during this period of development and change.
Tamsin Dillon, Head of Art on the Underground, said: "From the beginning, Art on the Underground was certain that the artwork produced for this station should involve the individuals and groups who live in, work in and visit Stratford.
"Central to the lives of so many people in the area, the station should embody something about the community that use it and in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Stratford's Art on the Underground projects will have the Olympic agendas of inclusion and celebration at their heart."
