Heather Phillipson presents 80-metre large, egg-themed artwork for Art on the Underground

Artist Heather Phillipson will present a new 80-metre large artwork at Art on the Underground this summer, which will be displayed across a disused platform in Gloucester Road underground station. The piece is called my name is lettie eggsyrub and will be on view for the next year.

Heather works across a number of disciplines; video, sculpture, online media, music, drawing, poetry and what Heather calls “walk-in collages”. my name is lettie eggsyrub is a sculptural and video installation that draws on computer game aesthetics and will focus on eggs and avian body parts, magnifying, distorting and recontextualising them.

The piece will also feature large-scale fibreglass sculptures including four-metre-high 3D eggs, a large whisk, twelve big video screens and 16 printed panels that will stretch across the platform. The subjects will include a number of egg-themed images like egg sandwiches, diagrams of chicken foetuses and custard tarts.

The egg imagery can be interpreted in a number of ways; as new life, rebirth and renewed possibilities; as humanity’s overconsumption of animal products; and as a widespread disconnection from the food we eat and its origins.

Heather’s surreal, humorous and disconcerting artwork evokes a range of contrasting emotions with the intention to challenge our preconceptions. This is no surprise as Heather often uses humour to address difficult issues and subvert assumed truths.

Heather Phillipson states: “my name is lettie eggsyrub enlarges the egg as a nucleus of conflict […] the egg recurs as a harbinger and taunt — not only as one of the most fundamental forms of mammalian reproductive systems and as representation of fertility, strength birth and futurity, but also, crucially, (over)production, consumption, exploitation and fragility”

my name is lettie eggsyrub will be Art on the Underground’s most ambitious project to date. The year-long exhibition opens on 7 June 2018 and forms part of #Behind EveryGreatCity – a major new campaign by the Mayor of London.