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Conceptual artist Ahmet Öğüt’s latest piece invites travellers to reflect on how art can save, transform, and reshape lives.
Commissioned by Transport for London’s (TfL) Art on the Underground programme and emerging artist platform New Contemporaries, the installation was inspired by a 2020 incident in Rotterdam where a giant whale sculpture prevented a train from plunging into the water after overrunning the stop blocks.
Eleanor Pinfield, head of Art on the Underground, said: “Art on the Underground has been bringing leading international artists to the spaces of the Tube for 25 years.
“In 2025, we continue this tradition, with a series of thoughtful commissions that foreground interactions with art in daily life.
“Öğüt’s project connects with the essential quality of art – to save us, literally and figuratively.
“There is no space like the Tube to reflect on these public stories, reaching millions of Londoners and visitors alike.
“This commission brings us together as we travel though the city by exploring the profound importance of art to our individual life stories.”
The visual centrepiece of the commission is a depiction of a whale’s tail emerging from the sea, displayed prominently on the station’s mezzanine.
Kiera Blakey, director of New Contemporaries, said: “New Contemporaries has been the story of British art for 75 years.
“With Saved by the Whale’s Tail, Saved by Art, Ahmet Öğüt makes visible the urgent, life-shaping power of art.”
Stratford is one of the UK’s busiest stations, recording more than 56 million entries and exits in 2024.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of both TfL and the Art on the Underground programme.
The programme has brought murals, sculptures, sound installations, and other artworks to the London transport network for a quarter of a century.
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