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Chiltern Railways Timetable - Heather and Ivan Morison Commission

Date uploaded: December 1, 2014

Chiltern Railways has commissioned the latest in a series of contemporary artworks to feature on its new timetable. The rail operator partnered with leading contemporary artists, Heather and Ivan Morison, and Digbeth-based art organisation, Eastside Projects, to create the artworks which will also feature on posters at stations on the Chiltern route, as part of its Chiltern Art Collaboration project.

The autumnal-themed artwork is entitled ‘Trackside walk: Birmingham to London’ and is an interlocking selection of woodcuts inspired by the 'interplay between the countryside and the line along the route'.

The artworks combine traditional craft techniques to form a slowed down, close up, version of reality, normally seen fleetingly from a train window at high speed.

Heather and Ivan Morison have exhibited around the world with their work being represented in influential galleries such as the Tate Modern in London. The artwork will be displayed at stations along Chiltern’s route, showing how transport and art can combine as essential parts of UK public life.

Ivan Morison said: “We thought about these two huge cities, Birmingham and London. We thought about the line that runs between them and the stops along that line. We thought about the houses and the fields seen from the train window between those stations.

"We got off the train and walked a rambling route, field by field, village by town by city, a dot to dot of stations, putting all those lives lived along the line into an order, placing them into a story of a trackside walk.”

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