Joy Gregory: A Little Slice of Paradise
A campaign design to celebrate the 39th pocket Tube map cover by leading British artist Joy Gregory.
Renowned for her influence on British feminist photography and social justice movements, Gregory uses photographic media to re-illuminate forgotten cultural, historical and political narratives. The artwork is a rich photographic collage inspired by Transport for London’s 100-year history of staff cultivated station gardens.* The artwork features a cyanotype† imprint of chickweed grown in station gardens digitally collaged with photographs of flowers including camellias, dahlias, daisies, and nastursiums.
The title, A Little Slice of Paradise, was inspired by a conversation Gregory had with gardener and Customer Service Manager, Tony Samuel, who described the garden he and his colleagues had created at Morden station as ‘a little slice of paradise’. The poster integrates this title through a playful typographic arrangement.
* Since 1910, Transport for London has run an annual competition called ‘In Bloom’, which recognises staff for their efforts cultivating gardens in unlikely station environments.
† Cyanotype is a process that captures the imprint of an object laid on top of light sensitive photographic paper in blue hues. It was notably used by some of the earliest known women photographers to document botanical objects at a time when women were discouraged from engaging with the sciences. In her practice, Gregory draws on this feminist history using the cyanotype to re-illuminate and reframe overlooked narratives about identity, race, gender and social history which underscore contemporary society.