Male statue, Brixton railway station in March 2011 01

''Platforms Piece'' consists of three bronze sculptures of commuters at

Brixton railway station Brixton railway station is a commuter railway station in Brixton, South London, UK. It is on the Chatham Main Line, down the line from . Trains are operated by Southeastern. The typical service is one train every 15 minutes in both direction ...

, completed by the British artist

Kevin Atherton Kevin Atherton (born 1950) is a International artist from the Isle of Man who holds Irish citizenship, after twenty years of living and working in Ireland he is now based in Hastings on the south coast of England. His practice includes performance ...

in 1986.

History

In 1985 the Public Art Development Trust suggested to

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

that they commission a piece of art for

. The sculptures were part of the £1m Brixton Station Improvement Scheme, which was devised by the

London Borough of Lambeth Lambeth () is a London borough in South London, England, which forms part of Inner London. Its name was recorded in 1062 as ''Lambehitha'' ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as ''Lambeth''. The geographical centre of London is at Frazier S ...

, and the Department of the Environment. Atherton, the artist, wanted his three figures to represent the real inhabitants of Brixton, and made sure to choose three models who had personal connections to Brixton: Peter Lloyd, Joy Battick and Karin Heistermann. Atherton made the bronze statues using the

lost-wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...

process, having made plaster moulds of his three models in a disused ticket office on the station platform (converted into a studio for his use). The sculptures were unveiled by

Sir Hugh Casson Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) was a British architect. He was also active as an interior designer, as an artist, and as a writer and broadcaster on twentieth-century design. He was the director of architecture for t ...

, who had also been on the selection panel that chose Atherton's pitch for the job, on 30 June 1986, once the station had been renovated. Platforms Piece won the Association of Business Sponsorship of the Arts Industry Year award for the best commission in any medium in 1986. In November 2016, ''Platforms Piece'' was given listed status by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

, and two of the figures are believed to be the first public sculptural representations of black British people in the UK.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Platforms Piece 1986 sculptures Brixton Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Lambeth Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Lambeth Outdoor sculptures in London Public art in London Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Lambeth 1986 establishments in England