Transit Art 1

This first Transit Art piece explored gender, visibility, and the creative potential of public-facing artwork in industrial spaces. Developed during a residency for the Year of the Artist, I took myself into the haulage industry to create a large-scale, site-specific artwork for the side of an 18-tonne truck.

With the development of ‘Women’s Work’, and having experienced sexual harassment whilst working in male industrial settings in the past, I chose to investigate women’s working roles in male-dominated environments for my residency. One objective for Year of the Artist was to deliver a national promotional vehicle that demonstrates the contribution of artists to the creativity and wellbeing of communities. Taking this quite literally, I worked for a month observing Intransit Light Transport at Baginton Airport, Coventry, and with Nuneaton Signs to develop my computer design skills and technical expertise in vehicle artwork application.

The final artwork was an abstract painting with an invisible vinyl drawing which lights up at night — painted and applied directly onto both curtain sides of an 18-tonne truck. The dominating shape is symbolic of a female presence: strong, supportive, and feminine with clear visual impact. Within this female structure, which also helps to support the male ‘grid’, there are a series of figures. These present themselves as either male or female — a series of people working together to achieve a shared objective, reinforcing the interdependence of male and female roles in the workplace.

The truck went on to travel the length and breadth of the country for over a decade, meeting the public directly with ‘Transit Art’. A photographic documentary and the truck itself were both exhibited at the haulage firm’s warehouse as part of the residency.