Commission as part of Ain Bailey’s new public audio work for TfL
Transport for London (TfL) has announced five new works in its rich and varied Art on the Underground programme for 2026. The new commissions will give space to underrepresented voices, and the renowned painter Hurvin Anderson will deliver the tenth annual commission in the Brixton Mural Programme in November.
A new audio work by London-based composer, artist and DJ Ain Bailey, her first UK public artwork, will launch in in late June. It is the third audio artwork commission in a series for Waterloo Underground station with the Mayor of London’s Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme. Bailey’s audio work for Waterloo undertakes an autobiographical mapping of London. Featuring an original composition and recording by London-born British-Caribbean experimental vocalist and movement artist Elaine Mitchener, the commission will pay homage to a list of more than 60 London premises that have now closed. Highlighting the far-reaching development of the city, which has driven closures particularly over the past 15 years, Bailey’s commission will respond to ideas of cultural lifecycles. It will ask how an artwork, or the activity of cultural spaces, both those lost and which remain active, produce experiences of collectively that don’t occur spontaneously, for example when moving through public space.
Artists Caroline Walker, Ellen Gallagher and Phoebe Boswell will also feature works on the London transport network, with Walker to create a large-scale painting featuring women working on the network at night.