The 2026 commission for
Art on the Underground sees Phoebe Boswell create a major new public artwork that transforms everyday travel spaces into sites of reflection and memory. Known for her multimedia practice exploring migration, identity, and belonging, Boswell brings a deeply personal and political perspective to Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Gate stations.
The work centres on Black swimming communities in London, developed through a public call-out and collaboration with participants whose lives are shaped by diasporic histories. Through layered photographic assemblages, Boswell foregrounds water as both a literal and symbolic space – one tied to healing, trauma, and collective memory. The project connects these themes to the hidden geographies beneath London; the Underground itself runs alongside buried rivers, and Boswell uses this idea to evoke submerged histories of migration and movement. Her imagery imagines these waterways as channels of resistance and connection, linking past and present journeys. By placing images of Black bodies in motion within the Underground – a space often associated with speed and anonymity – she invites commuters to pause and consider unseen narratives.
This commission reflects the broader aims of Art on the Underground, which since 2000 has brought contemporary art into public transit, engaging millions of passengers with site-specific works that question space, place, and representation.
