London-based artist Joe Namy introduces new community-led audio artwork at Waterloo Underground station

• Spoken word from three London community organisations is layered with music in a 10-minute soundscape that can also be heard across the rest of the London Underground through a QR code
• Namy worked on the project with the Mayor of London's Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme, which works to protect community and cultural spaces across the capital

Transport for London's (TfL's) Art on the Underground programme is pleased to present a new sound artwork by London-based artist Joe Namy. The work has been developed following collaboration and community engagement with three organisations supported by the Mayor of London's Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme.

Joe Namy works across sound, performance, radio and video. His new project, 'Radio Underground', involves creatives from different cultural and community spaces in London to create a 10-minute sound work, focusing on Namy's interest in the politics of listening, music and translation.

'Radio Underground' has been developed in collaboration with Colour Factory, a live music venue and nightclub in Hackney; PalMusic UK, a music education charity supporting young Palestinian musicians and celebrating Palestinian music; and Sister Midnight, a cooperative community radio station in south London. Spoken word and segments of speech from each organisation are layered with original music from flautist Wissam Boustany (PalMusic), oud player Saied Silbak (PalMusic), flautist Ruth Montgomery (Audiovisability), and theremin by Lenny Watson (Sister Midnight).

The work can be heard at Waterloo Underground station from 15-28 July, through the station speakers along the moving walkway connecting the Northern and Jubilee lines. Echoing the style of a radio broadcast, 'Radio Underground' brings a new sonic experience to the station, a public broadcast that calls on people to listen to each other in new ways, to new rhythms and to shared interconnections.

The work creates a space to find solidarity, and for culture and community to express resilience and an understanding of the socio-political power music holds. 'Radio Underground' can also be accessed through a QR code on a poster campaign across the London Underground, with a link to imagery that gives visual rhythm to the sound and constellation of the many parts, people, places and histories that make up the work.

Eleanor Pinfield, Head of Art on the Underground, said: "We are delighted to launch the second in a series of sound commissions from Joe Namy, utilising the speakers of the moving walkway at Waterloo for the first time. 'Radio Underground' has been developed through dialogue and collaboration with three partners across the city, with contributions from each sonically woven together into an artwork akin to a radio broadcast. This soundscape for London calls us together in a collective space, one where we are well used to regular public announcements. Namy's audio soundtrack asks us to become more attuned to our surroundings, to take a moment to listen and share space with the people around us."

Joe Namy, artist, said: "This project was a dream, a deep dive into the fascinating history of the sound of the Underground, at times offering moments of peace, at other times transforming the travelator into a catwalk, and other times making space for the brilliant organisations that contributed to the project. We were able to bring in so many different voices to resonate with the unique architecture of the station." 

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said: "Culture is the beating heart of London and I know Joe Namy's 'Radio Underground' will entertain and inspire passengers as they travel on the Tube. I'm delighted that Art on the Underground is working closely with many grassroots arts organisations we have supported at City Hall, it's a wonderful opportunity to have their work displayed in one of London's busiest Tube stations, as we build a better and fairer London for all."

About Art on the Underground

Art on the Underground invites artists to create projects for London's Underground that are seen by millions of people each day, changing the way people experience their city.

Incorporating a range of artistic media - from painting, installation, sculpture, digital and performance, to prints and custom Tube map covers - the programme produces critically acclaimed projects that are accessible to all, and which draw together London's diverse communities. Since its inception, Art on the Underground has presented commissions by UK-based and international artists including Jeremy Deller, Yayoi Kusama, Mark Wallinger, and Tania Bruguera, allowing the programme to remain at the forefront of contemporary debate on how art can shape public space.

Art on the Underground's annual audio commission series is developed as a strand of collaborative commissioning working with the Mayor of London's Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme (CCSaR). Through engagement with the CCSaR programme and the communities around London Underground stations, the commissions aim to spotlight the work of organisations who face structural barriers to sustaining space in the capital and to create and share resonances from them, across the city.

Reed, the family-run recruitment and business services company, is the current annual sponsor for the Art on the Underground programme.

Joe Namy is an artist, composer, and educator often working collaboratively through the intersections of sound, video, performance, and sculpture. Their projects focus on the politics of music and organised sound, such as the pageantry and power of opera, the noise laws and gender dynamics of bass, the colours and tones of militarisation, the migration patterns of instruments and songs, and the complexities of translation in all this—from language to language, from score to sound, from drum to dance. Joe holds a monthly DJ residency called Rhythm x Rhythm on Radio Alhara, is the artist in residence for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, and a PhD researcher at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University.

The Mayor of London's Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme (CCSaR) is a Greater London Authority programme focussed on safeguarding existing spaces across London - protecting both their social and economic value. The programme provides expertise to help protect against threats to London's cultural and community-led spaces, and directly supports organisations to save spaces at risk. The Mayor of London's Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme (CCSaR) is working with Art on the Underground on this innovative new project which will feature some of the grassroots organisations the programme has supported. The project aims to amplify and make visible the work organisations do. 

• Colour Factory is a nightclub, live music venue, food court and multi-functional events space in Hackney Wick, East London. Colour Factory advocate cultural diversity and offer an all-inclusive environment in which everybody is welcome https://www.colourfactory.com/
• PalMusic UK, a registered UK charity (Friends of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music), has been giving access to high-quality music education to Palestinian children and young people since 2012 https://www.palmusic.org.uk/what-we-do/
• Sister Midnight is a south east London based cooperative working since 2021 to open the first community owned music venue in Lewisham. Sister Midnight is also a community run radio station sistermightnight.org
• Information about Saied Silbak is available at saiedsilbak.com
• Information about Wissam Boustany is available at wissamboustany.com

Radio Underground has also been developed in part in conversation with Audiovisability to realise a digital visualisation of the sound work, accessible via a QR code on a London Underground wide poster campaign. Ruth Montgomery, Artistic Director has contributed original flute music to the piece. Audiovisability is a registered charity based in the UK. They champion the deaf perspective, tap into the ingenuity and brilliance of deaf creativity and musicianship through instrumental performance, visual arts, sign language, creative captioning, technology and music education.