Northern Adventures celebrated the past, present and future of St Pancras, a well-loved London landmark which for over a century has represented the gateway to the North of England.
The station and its environs are undergoing great changes, including the creation of a terminus for the Channel Tunnel Link. This has provided an opportunity for the invited artists to create site specific work especially for this time of transition.
Intrinsic to this project is an enquiry into how art functions in public places, how the public at St Pancras, the great number of travellers – commuters, visitors, voyages – who hurry about their business every day, can gain insights to familiar surroundings through such interventions. A metropolitan terminus has any number of functions beyond that of simply moving people from place to place, as it encapsulates within that practicality the hopes, dreams and desires of all those who arrive and depart.
All the artists included in this exhibition have a record of working on particular architectural sites as well as for galleries, a facet of their practice which can be seen simultaneously at Camden Art Centre. The two sites reveal different nuances and emphases inspired by different contexts.
