London Underground

Having recently travelled around Europe and experienced the different public transport systems, London Underground was the one that stood out to me the most.  The worlds firsts underground rail system, opening in 1863 now carries over one billion passengers a year.

Also know as the tube, which quite literally it is. The walls curved at the top as well as the trains and the escalators, all create a tunnel vision throughout the whole of the underground. The walls of the undergrounds are tiled with majority white titles and the odd black or brown tile. Every station has different tiling, brown and the black are used to create a pattern throughout multiple platforms.

When entering the underground, you emerge into this space which feels like you are in a sci-fi world, the high beam white lights and the yellow, blue and red interiors, the etiquette of where you stand on the escalator and the platform, passengers lined up in a somewhat orderly fashion, and then there is the chaos where people just want to get on their train and its first in first served.

I stood on the platform after just missing a train; I was one of five standing, it felt like the calm before the storm. I had 2 minutes of complete calmness around me and then the chaos started again, people rushing to grab a seat and get on the train.  Once on the train it was 3 minutes to the next stop with no view of the outside, just a lit up carriage and the pitch-dark walls of the tunnel.  

I take the escalator up to the street, I can see the sky looking down on me, I get to the top and I feel like I’ve entered an entirely new world.

Image1: http://www.ohdearism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/London-Underground.jpg

Image2: http://samotako1.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/london-tube-john-doherty.jpg

Image3: http://samotako1.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/london-tube2.png

St Patrick's Cathedral

Light | The Sublime

  

Walking into the neo gothic cathedral of St Patrick, I feel a sense of relief and calming to my body. Not a religious believer myself, I feel a different connection to the church, than one that is a religious believer or have been brought up in a religious background. I have never been to a church for any type of ceremony or mass. Maybe this is the reason, when I do visit a church it does bring a sense of relief and calming to my body, being something I very rarely do and rarely have time to sit and relax.

 The calming of the warm Yellow light beaming through the high stained glass windows makes one feel relaxed and welcomed. A place where you can forget about the busy street outside and let your mind rest. When inside I felt my mind switching off, a sensation that rarely occurs in my day to day life.

When walking around the church, I came upon a man restoring a section of the tiles, piece by piece he hammered them into the ground, like a jigsaw puzzle.

For me the amazing patters on the tiles draws my attention to the middle of the church, where the priest sits at the altar.

James Turrell describes, “ My material is light, which I use to work the medium of perception”.  When applying this method to myself I found that my perception of outside did change. I know longer had thoughts of the outside world, I was completely engaged with the interior that I was in. The beaming light shining down on the interior of the church, A metaphor for “god” looking down on those who have entered his “house”. The warm yellow interior making one feel welcomed into “gods house” compared to the cold blues and purples at the entrance and exit, somewhat preparing one for the outside world again.