What public art installation at Cambridge South Station by Turner Prize nominee will look like
This is how a new public art installation at the forthcoming Cambridge South Station from a Turner Prize-nominated artist will look.
Called Together We, Mark Titchner’s work is described as a ‘poem’ drawing on work of the physician William Harvey, who went to the University of Cambridge. An animated digital artwork will be created by the artist to support the main piece.
This will be displayed on screens within the station and available for people to download for free by scanning QR codes at the station.
A public artwork was a requirement of the planning permission for the new station, which is due to open beside Cambridge Biomedical Campus in late 2025.
Network Rail submitted details of the installation for Cambridge City Council to sign off.
In the plans, it explained that the brief given to artists was for a “significant public artwork that creates a dynamic focus for the new station, celebrates its global context and contributes to a coherent approach”.
The brief was shared with 24 artists, with 13 ultimately submitting an expression of interest.
Three artists were invited to an interview, following which Mr Titchner was chosen to undertake the commission.
Describing Together We, the plans explained: “The concept of the work focuses on the circulation and coming ‘together’ of people. Its origins are in circulatory systems both medical and in transport.
“During his research and development, Mark Titchner was drawn to the work of English physician William Harvey (1578-1657), who was an alumni of the University of Cambridge and was the first known physician to describe completely the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the brain and the rest of the body by the heart.
“Mark started thinking about circulation, connections and transport networks and systems.
“Mark searched ‘the writings of William Harvey’ looking for all instances of the word ‘together’, then collected a list of words that precede it, such as ‘drawn together’, ‘mingled together’, ‘arise together’, ‘combine together’, ‘unite together’.
“Using these works he has developed a text work, which explores the notions of ‘together’ and collective activity.”
Mr Titchner will work with the London Mural Company to create Together We poem, which will be painted on the balustrades of the stairwells of the west and east station buildings.
Network Rail said the artwork will be made using hard-wearing paint to make sure it is durable, but said it could be retouched with the agreement of the artist if it became damaged.
The digital artwork will be hosted on a standalone online platform for five years and will feature further information about the work. The application noted that it could also be displayed on other screens, such as hospitals on the campus.
London-based Mr Titchner, who grew up in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2006, is also due to take part in the Cambridge University Hospitals Arts Festival in summer 2025.
The council’s public art officer approved of the plans, describing it as “an exciting and site-responsive outcome”.
Network Rail will be keen to avoid the kind of controversy that has surrounded the public artwork outside Cambridge’s main railway station.
Artist Gavin Turk was forced to defend the work Ariadne (Wrapped) on the plaza in the CB1 area after Green Party city councillors described the sculpture of a Greek goddess covered in a dust sheet and tied up in ropes as “just another way that violence against women is being mainstreamed”.
Mr Turk said he was thinking about the idea of public sculpture, and was inspired by “the artists Christo and Jean Claude, when they wrap public buildings, or wrap up architecture, and in some way offer this moment of transience, this moment of something transforming into something else”.