A Brighter Passage
Upper Edmonton, North London
September 2022
The 34Bus Collective for this project are Amaechi Anolue,Amy Dolan, Liv Wright and Alistair Leys
This heavily used Underpass, built in 1975, had in recent years become an unpleasant space to be in, it felt unsafe and uncared for. A local resident found this space and got in touch to ask 34Bus to create an artwork here. With funding from the The Meridian Water Community Chest and support from TFL , Brewers, Tanners End Lane Priory and Enfield Council, 34Bus were able to take on the challenge of making this walkway somewhere which brings a moment of joy to a regular commute to work, a trip to the hospital or a walk to school.
The design for the mural was developed over a series of 3 workshops with the talented art students from Aylward Academy years 7-11. These workshops inspired an idea for how to break up the space which evolved into a world of origami. The artwork takes the viewer on a journey of transformation as coloured paper folds and unfolds, playing with scale and light, finally forming into paper butterflies.
The butterflies are flying through the underpass, accompanying the pedestrians and cyclists, who are also making the journey through before flying off into an unfolding sky. The sense of movement is accentuated by the different sized butterflies, on a backdrop of folded paper. This paper could be seen as different stages of the butterfly’s origami creation, but also creates potential spaces to see new things. A Brighter Passage was painted in September 2022 with help from local volunteers.
SUPPORTED BY
In Collaboration with
