The Art on the Underground Sankofa Poster Project launch had to be postponed over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic but the themes of the winning design seem even more relevant in 2021.
In early 2020 we approached Westminster City School, located between Victoria station and Westminster station, to do the Sankofa Poster Project consisting of a one day schools workshop led by artist Shepherd Manyika, in relation to Larry Achiampong’s commission. The workshop was with 22 x Year 10 students, who were all male and from multicultural backgrounds living across London and beyond. The day kicked off with an introduction about Art on the Underground and Larry Achiampong’s commission as well as his ongoing series Pan African Flag for the Relic Travellers’ Alliance, followed by workshop artist Shepherd Manyika talking about his own artistic practice. We then walked with the students to Westminster tube station to see Larry Achiampong's commission, along with some sketching at the station and in the surrounding area to identify other iconic London or British designs, like the Roundel. Back at school, students were set an individual poster design brief around redesigning an iconic London or British design in a way that changes its meaning and makes the individual feel more represented both culturally and personally, along with the idea of ‘sankofa’ - using the past to prepare for the future, relevant in Larry Achiampong’s commission.
As an extension to the project the students created a poster design (started during the workshop and completed during further school lessons) with one student’s work chosen by Shepherd Manyika to be displayed in a poster site at Westminster tube station during July and August 2021. At the launch event the winning student, Niaz Rahman attended with his family. Niaz unveiled his own poster in situ and announced to the public over the station tannoy system to look out for his artwork.
For more about the project take a look here
“They watched the video of Larry Achiampong’s work and said they liked the way he was fighting for social justice, equality for all with his work and it had more meaning than they realised when they first saw it. The idea that the colours of the roundel are very imperialist had never struck them so they looked at the colour in Achiampong’s designs and the underground differently following the workshop.”
(Head of Art, Elaine Chance)
The winning student photographing his poster design on display at Westminster tube station