Longbenton

Station footbridge

2001

As one initiative in response to issues of graffiti in the Longbenton area and at the Metro station, artists Simon Jones and Rob Belilios were commissioned to consult and work with young people in an exploration of the process of creating an artwork relating to their environment and interests.

By holding workshops and ‘tag collection kiosks’, Longbenton residents were invited to leave pattern marks and designs to be used in the overall design of ceramic tiles for use in the station’s footbridge.

Their work incorporates fifty different abstracted tags and marks, housed within repeat speech bubbles and screen printed onto pastel coloured tiles. The overall tiled surface of the footbridge seeks to be representative while abstracted, and is coupled with coloured filtered lighting to transform the interior bridge space.