Nexus commissioned artwork on display at Byker Metro

Jul 4 2009 by David Whetstone, The Journal

ARTIST Tom Hammick arrived by taxi at Byker Metro Station last night to see his biggest ever picture – of a boat.

But Nexus, who commissioned the giant artwork, couldn’t have been more delighted.

The work, called Night Ferry, was commissioned after the Metro bosses studied the entries which flooded in for the very first Northern Print Biennale.

The biggest exhibition of printmaking in Britain for 20 years opened at three Newcastle venues – the Laing Art Gallery, the Hatton Gallery and Northern Print.

But the biggest Biennale work is Tom’s 10 metre wide Nexus commission which earned him a £2,000 prize.

He explained: “It’s a monotype print where you paint onto a piece of Perspex, put a piece of white paper on the top and then pass it through a giant press so the image transfers from the Perspex to the paper.

“I wanted to do a piece that was very romantic because I am a romantic.

“Newcastle is so wrapped up with the sea and connections to Europe that I decided to do a ferry out at sea, either coming or going. It’s a metaphor for life really.”

He added: “I could have done a train but I thought a boat would be quite romantic.”

Because of the enormous width of the Byker Metro Station concourse, the proportions of Tom’s original image had to be made wider and narrower, meaning a broad strip of red sunset (or sunrise) had to be removed.

He said this had made the image look more apocalyptic, which he didn’t mind.

“The environment is a very big part of what I do. We are in a precarious time and no-one knows if we are going to get through the next 100 years.”

Tom, who lives on the Sussex coast, said: “I recently had a solo show at Northern Print so I’ve been up here quite a lot. I love it up here.” Night Ferry was commissioned to mark the 30th anniversary of Nexus’s Art on Transport initiative.

Among previous artworks displayed in this location was a graffiti-based mural by local pensioners.