Inspiration for our project intially dervived from a piece of artwork we found whilst doing basic research on the London Underground, this was Simon Patterson's 'Great Bear'. The piece was produced in 1992 and is a modified version of the London Tube Map. Patterson has used each tube line to represent a group of individuals, from philosopher, to celebrities and sports personalities. Patterson's work uses Maps and diagrams of an authoritive nature and transforms them by subverting their concept and forces us to challenge our original assumptions and question our associations with the piece.
This piece of art work has become extremely popular and become an iconic piece of artwork. Its theme has been used by several other artist over the last 15 years and other modified versions of the London Tube Map can be found on the internet. Two recent examples are below- The Rude Map and the Convience Map use Patterson's concept.
The Rude Map:
The Convience Map (symbolises where toilets can be found outside tube stations):
