An exciting new work by British artist Michael Landy titled ‘All my lines in the palm of your hand‘ is the latest artist commission work from Art on the Underground. it was designed for the front cover of the Pocket Tube Map, and is now available from Tube stations from yesterday 31st August 2011.
The work is a tracing of the artist’s own hand in pencil; the creases and lines of the hand are represented by lines drawn in the various colours of the Tube map. In this way, Landy makes a direct relationship between ‘the artist’s hand’ and the Pocket Tube Map. We can read his palm and see how his personal journeys have left their mark there. Reproduced as a pocket artwork for millions of Tube travellers to hold in the palm of their own hands, the work has a humorous yet uncanny quality.
Head of Art on the Underground, Tamsin Dillon, said: “I like the way that Landy brings us back to the physical workings of the Tube Map. His reference to the way that people write on their hands as an aid memoire is very much in contrast to current handheld technology – like GPS and Google Maps. The Pocket Tube Map is a traditional, ‘hands-on’ guide, which is still a great way to get around the London Underground system.”
The presentation of this new work coincides with Michael Landy’s project for the Central line series, Acts of Kindness. Find out more and to tell us your story of kindness on the Tube
Landy’s is the 14th Pocket Tube Map design to be commissioned by Art on the Underground. Other artists in the series include Jeremy Deller, Richard Long, David Shrigley and Mark Wallinger. See all Tube map covers commissioned by Art on the Underground.
Michael Landy (born in U.K, 1963) is best known for the performance piece installation Break Down (2001), in which he destroyed all of his possessions. Other major projects include Semi-Detached (2004), for which he reproduced his parents’ house to scale inside the galleries of Tate Britain, and Art Bin (2010) at the South London Gallery where he invited artists to come and throw away their work.