100 by Yemisi Blake and Jay Bernard
Date uploaded: January 12, 2015
'100' by Yemisi Blake and Jay Bernard is a new commission by Art on the Underground celebrating Transport for London’s Year of the Bus. '100' is on display at North Greenwich Bus Station, Kingston Cromwell Road Bus Station and Walthamstow Bus Station from January 2015.
100 is a new poetry and visual artwork by artists Jay Bernard and Yemisi Blake that looks into the people, history and technology behind the London bus. Yemisi and Jay will read from their work 100 at the launch which will also feature lines recorded by Emma Hignett, Transport for London’s ‘voice of the bus’.
For over a century, motorised buses have appeared on London’s streets. They have come to be, perhaps, the most recognisable icon of London and an integral part of its landscape and culture. 100 is a new three-part work by artists Jay Bernard and Yemisi Blake that looks into the people, history and technology behind the London bus.
100 comprises one hundred one-line poems. Each line is a single thought or an individual’s personal experience. Taken together, the poems map the networks and intersections between the city, the buses, drivers and passengers, both historically and today.
Bernard and Blake explore buses as physical objects as well as social spaces within which multiple lives and stories overlap, intertwine and disperse. The poems offer a series of different perspectives – from the buses' role in the First World War, to first generation Caribbean bus drivers in the 1940s, to first experiences, favourite routes, and contemporary experiences of travel. Together they create a map of collective memories tracing over the city.
The work was developed following a research period that Bernard and Blake undertook in summer 2014. Over this time they attended a series of public open days organised by Transport for London as part of Year of the Bus. The artists met with passengers, bus enthusiasts and staff; recording their experiences and learning of the behind the scenes work that goes into the maintenance of London’s buses.
100 is at North Greenwich Bus Station, Kingston Cromwell Road Bus Station and Walthamstow Bus Station from January 2015.
The project is part of TfL’s celebrations to mark the Year of the Bus, in partnership with London Transport Museum and the capital’s bus operators.
For more information click here or for Year of the Bus click here.
