Art Below interview: Art on the Underground with Ben Moore

By Max Leonard, le cool London

Since 2006, Art Below has been making the London Underground a brighter and more pleasant place to be, taking over advertising hoardings at stations across the network to display works of art. It has featured diverse works, including some by architect and artist Ben Pentreath, street artist Banksy, Saatchi Award winner Sarah Maple and performance artist Philip Levene. 

“Art should be, and in some senses already is, everywhere, and we believe that it should be for everybody,” Art Below’s founder, Ben Moore, has said. “The gallery often has a stigma, leading people to perceive art as a closed door, a private establishment, and suggests an exclusive forum which only certain people are encouraged to participate. Today's urban people lead increasingly busy lives, they often do not have the time to appreciate the value of art. We bring change by taking the art to them. We show art in a new, public context.’

Art Below’s success in London has led to projects in Berlin and Tokyo, with new projects soon to spring up in other capitals. Nevertheless, it remains active and committed in London, and has recently initiated a collaboration with the Hospital Club, the multimedia studio and event space in Covent Garden. It takes the form of a series of open-entry themed challenges, in which artists are invited to submit on a certain theme, with the best work then exhibited.

The latest winner, Eloise Fornieles, is an Argentinean artist whose intimate, vulnerable piece entitled The Oyster Bar won the ‘Open Kimono’ theme. It’s at London Bridge station for two weeks (check Art Below for details).

le cool caught up with Art Below founder Ben Moore, to talk about the Hospital Club challenges.

Is it constantly surprising the way that people interpret such an open brief?

I think what people do is they take the concept, say, 'Gravity' and they have a look through their portfolio to see what they have that might suit that concept. I don’t think many people have time these days to sit down and construct a whole piece of work – especially when there is no guarantee of winning. I know that I wouldn't, and also the time available isn’t massive - only three or four weeks. So often the winner is someone who managed to come across something in their portfolio that seems to fit the concept like a glove! 

There are those rare exceptions where you do get artists who have really taken time to think about the concept and have given it their all in creating something, but often it seems apparent that that is what has happened, and that in itself is a 'turn off' for me as a judge. It would be interesting to take all the concepts that we have done and take all the artworks and put them into one pool and ask viewers to match the artworks to the concepts - I'm sure there would be plenty of mix ups.

Do many or all of the artists think about the underground, public nature of the space of reception?

No not enough. People often forget about where the artwork may end up, and the relationship and interaction they can develop with a public audience. It is always something that I am trying to encourage artists to consider more, but a lot of artists are specialists in their own style and simply want to share that with the world, whereas I see it more as an opportunity provoke hilarity or make a statement about something that is going on in the world at the time.

Can you pick one or two of the past winners that really worked well, or stood out artistically for you?

Out of the three past winners of the Hospital Club collaboration, I would say my favourite would have to be the fallen apple for the theme of ‘gravity’ by Massimo Ratti. Such a simple yet effective visual way to capture the concept of gravity - get a shiny fresh red apple and simply drop it on a white surface and photograph it. I also love the fact that Massimo Ratti is an electrician from Italy with a passion for art and photography.

Eloise Fornieles’s The Oyster Bar will be at London Bridge until 5 July.

www.artbelow.org.uk

Image credit: Steven Silverwood poses in front of his le cool-curated Art Below poster – by Tom Medwell

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