A new sound artwork by Turner prize-nominated artist Rory Pilgrim has launched at Waterloo Underground station with Transport for London’s (TfL’s) Art on the Underground programme. It expands on Pilgrim’s engagement with those affected by the criminal justice system and explores a connection between London and Dorset’s Isle of Portland, whose stone has helped build London.

Go Find Miracles is a 10-minute piece combining music and spoken word, produced in collaboration with the Mayor of London’s Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme (CCSaR), the Feminist Library in Peckham and the Prison Choir Project. It will play for a fortnight between 10:00 and 17:00 on weekdays until Friday 25 July, along the moving walkway that connects the Jubilee and Northern lines at Waterloo Underground station.

The piece asks how we go beneath the surface to imagine new structures of repair and possibility. It focuses on the role that the Isle of Portland, Dorset, has played in shaping London, with Portland stone being used to build many of London’s most iconic buildings, including TfL’s historic headquarters, 55 Broadway, and Waterloo station itself. Portland is also the site of two prisons and the former site of a prison barge, with many of those imprisoned having historically worked in the quarries.

Expanding from Pilgrim’s long-term collaboration with communities on Portland, Go Find Miracles explores how the law impacts our lives and environment. Structured around a prayer of call and response between London and Portland, it is recorded in an underground quarry and on a disused Jubilee line platform. Spoken reflections and poetry by Carina Murray and Holly Upton are accompanied by music composed by Pilgrim and sung by soloist Robyn Haddon, alumni of the Prison Choir Project, and a further choir of singers. The lyrics and melodies of the work have partly been written with people from HMP/YOI Portland. With this new sound artwork, Pilgrim asks: if we break the loop, is it here we find space for miracles?

Go Find Miracles is a continuation of Pilgrim’s collaborative work across music composition, performance, film, drawing and text, reflecting and redefining how we come together to shape social change. The new work is heard alongside visual artworks by Pilgrim on display throughout Waterloo Underground station and is accessible through a QR code on posters across the network. An expanded leaflet documenting the piece’s development is available to collect from Waterloo Underground station.

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said: “Art on the Underground has been transforming London’s Underground network into a dynamic public art space for 25 years. Globally renowned, it brings contemporary art to millions of travellers every day. Visit the latest artwork, Go Find Miracles, at Waterloo underground station to hear Rory Pilgrim’s sound installation – it is a powerful addition to the 25th anniversary celebrations, as we build a better London for everyone.”

Eleanor Pinfield, Head of Art on the Underground, said: “We are delighted to be launching a new sound commission for the moving walkway at Waterloo Underground station, one of the busiest on the network. Pilgrim’s collaborative approach has brought together voices from London and Portland to consider the miraculous in the everyday. This new audio work reminds us of the power of connection, to those around us in our communities and those we travel through the city with each day.”

James Reed, CEO Reed Recruitment, said: “The Reed Group is delighted to be supporting this engaging, multi-faceted and important project by Rory Pilgrim. Go Find Miracles brings us an inspiring message of hope and positivity, encouraging us to seek connection and find miraculous moments in our everyday lives. We very much look forward to experiencing Pilgrim’s sound work and drawings in Waterloo Underground station this July.”

Holly Upton, Neurodiversity Support Manager at HMP/YOI Portland, said: “This has been an inspiring experience for both staff and prisoners. We’re looking forward to seeing it come to life on the Underground. Working in a prison has its challenges, but you can make a difference.”

Art on the Underground’s audio commission series is developed as part of a new strand of collaborative, community art commissioning working with CCSaR. This programme realises an annual sound commission developed through an engagement with the CCSaR programme and the communities around Underground stations 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.

Last year Art on the Underground commissioned a sound artwork by Joe Namy as part of this new strand of work and which also played at Waterloo Underground station. Radio Underground was developed between 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.

This year Art on the Underground celebrates its 25th anniversary. Since its inception in 2000, the programme has had a renowned history of commissioning site-specific artworks across the city. The changing programme of temporary works, alongside groundbreaking permanent pieces, including Alexandre da Cunha’s kinetic sculpture at Battersea Power Station Underground station and Mark Wallinger’s Labyrinth across London Underground network, speak to people, places, and histories, placing trust in artists and the creative process.

Last month, Art on the Underground launched the 41st pocket Tube map with a design by Agnes Denes, which reimagines the globe in electrified form, mirroring how the London Underground map reconfigures the capital. In September a large-scale artwork will appear at Stratford station by artist Ahmet Öğüt, and the new mural at Brixton London Underground station, launching in November, will be by Rudy Loewe.

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