Gateshead College student, Lisa Johnson’s peacock design was chosen to feature in Gateshead Interchange following an appeal by Nexus for a piece of art to liven up the entrance and welcome travellers.
Lisa’s design was chosen out of 30 ideas submitted by Gateshead College students and will feature in the Jackson Street entrance to the interchange, one of the busiest bus stations in North East England, used by more than four million bus and Metro passengers each year.
Two years ago Lisa was helping to install Yoko Ono’s Wish Trees exhibit in Saltwell Park. Now it is her design that has been chosen to appear in Gateshead and be seen by thousands.
Fine arts student, Lisa designed a peacock image which is made up of the word ‘hello’ in every language she could think of. Now that it has been selected for the Gateshead Interchange site she is working with Gateshead College’s Digital Academy interactive media lecturer to scale up the image to form a 7m x 5m high canvas.
Lisa said: “I’m really excited that my art is going to be seen by so many people, it’s a real honour.
“When we were asked to come up with a design for a piece of art for the entrance to the station I felt that the best way would be for the art to say hello in many different languages. People travel to the North East from many different places and I would like to think my artwork would help to welcome them.”
After living in the Philippines all of her life, Lisa moved to Gateshead in 2008 to pursue a career in design. Her father is originally from the North East and she now lives in Whickham with her brother who has always resided in the UK.
She has just completed a BTEC National Diploma in Fine Art at Gateshead College and is now taking a year out to save up before applying to university. She hopes to attend the prestigious St Martin’s College in London to pursue a career in fashion design.
Nexus worked with Gateshead College to find the right artwork because so many students pass through the interchange to reach the nearby campus, only a few minutes away.
Bobby Towns, Nexus bus station manager, said: “We were really impressed with all of the designs by Gateshead College’s art students. But it was Lisa’s design that really stood out and straight away we could see how striking it could be when created on a large scale and installed in the interchange.
“When the design is installed we hope that it will provide an interesting focal point for those travelling in and out of Gateshead. I’m sure it will also attract art enthusiasts looking to follow Gateshead’s public art trail.”
All of the Gateshead College students that submitted design ideas did so as if the project was for a professional commissioned piece. They created mood boards, scale plans, 3D plans and architectural and digital mock-ups.
The image shows art student, Lisa Johnson with (l-r) Gateshead College’s Simon Underhill and Bobby Towns and Nigel Hore of Nexus.