Last week I was excited to be at the launch of Pond Life: Albertopolis & the Lily the new commission by Monster Chetwynd at Gloucester Road tube station.

Chetwynd has created a salamander sculpture along with a series of five large-scale sculptural discs located on the disused platform, each featuring creatures that seem to be constructing sections of the Crystal Palace. Chetwynd became fascinated by the giant Amazonian waterlily which was the inspiration behind architect Joseph Paxton’s pioneering design for the Crystal Palace, the building which housed the Great Exhibition in 1851 in Hyde Park and later in Sydenham.

Where I was involved in the commission was in creating the related detective hunt of seven posters placed along the South Kensington pedestrian tunnel, inspired by the book Masquerade by Kit Williams. Visitors are invited to look for the piggy-backing frogs and solve the clues leading to a word that takes them into the Natural History Museum, to discover a hidden history and alternative stories often untold in Museums.

For more information about this Art on the Underground commission visit here