‘The Great Bear’ by Simon Patterson

‘The Great Bear’, by Simon Patterson, was produced in 1992. This is a deceptively simple piece of work being only an adaptation of the official map of the London Underground. Patterson has replaced the names of the stations with philosophers, actors, saints and other well known personages characterised by the fact they were all at the forefront of major world developments. The different professionals are given their own tube lines, on which their names are gathered.

The title The Great Bear refers to the constellation Ursa Major, a punning reference to Patterson’s own arrangement of “stars”. Patterson playfully subverts our belief that maps and diagrams provide a reliable source of information. “I like disrupting something people take as read”, he comments. (From the display caption May 2002)

Detail from 'The Great Bear'

The piece itself is a lithograph on paper which measures 108.5 by 134 cm.

The London Underground tube map as we know it today had its origins in 1933 with the design first penned by Harry Beck. He was an employee of the underground who realised that because the railway was mostly underground the physical locations of stations didn’t matter, users of the tube only wanted to know how to get from one station to another.

This led to a simplification of the map where the lines themselves were dedicated their own colours to represent them, the lines ran horizontally, vertically or at a 45 degree angle and to emphasise connections, where lines crossed, he used diamonds. The only physical landscape feature he represented was the Thames.

Beck worked on design for the London Underground until 1960 when he completed his final redesign of the tube map which has the strongest link to the map we use today. Over his time working for the London Underground he added tube lines and stations, as well as developing his original design.

When looking at something as iconic as the London Underground map, it seems very stationary in time, in reality it shows true evolution of design that has had to develop and change in accordance with the needs of its viewers, and the city and railway it represents.

The functionality of the tube map is epitomised by the use of colour. The aesthetics run parallel to the functionality of the design e.g. the design would not work if the different lines were only represented in black and white.

The whole purpose of a map is to direct its viewer around an alien environment in order that they can move around efficiently. The other aspect to the design is it legibility. The tube lines are represented in different colours on a white background with circles depicting connections between tube’ lines. The names of the stations are placed in order along the lines and are written in a simple sans serif font which is very legible at both a large and small point size.

‘The Great Bear’ is part of the evolution and history of this iconic design. Patterson seemingly has an endless fascination by the information which orders our lives. In his work he subverts sources of information such as maps, diagrams and constellation charts. In another piece by Patterson called “The Last Supper Arranged According to the Flat Back Four Formation (Jesus Christ in Goal)” he shows the names of the Apostles arranged as different football team systems with Jesus in goal.

Patterson’s pieces are entrenched in reality, and the original sources are functional, when Patterson adds his own cultural associations it renders the functionality of the designs useless. It throws up a lot of interesting questions surrounding the physical work itself and also the cultural context within. ‘The Great Bear’s true triumph resides in the juxtaposition of the original design in combination with the metaphorical implications it raises.

Once the guise of pragmatism is removed the aesthetics of the design are highlighted forcing the viewer to question the design on a deeper level, in essence it engages the conscious mind. By putting the image in a new context e.g. art gallery, the viewer is forced to question why it is there. Combined with other factors such as a change in title and details such as station names the viewer cannot think of it just as a functional piece of design.

‘The Great Bear’ blurs the boundaries between fine art and design and makes the viewer recognise and celebrate design as art. As viewers we recognise that we have ignored an iconic part of our cultural psyche because in this context the functionality becomes obsolete so we can concentrate on the design itself.

By choosing famous people’s names in place of stations Patterson makes a statement about the culture in which we live. By compartmentalising names in this way Patterson suggests a metaphor; we surround ourselves with iconic people in our historic and cultural map of the world in the same way in which our environment physically surrounds us.

By replacing the station names with those of well known personages Patterson is making a strong statement about the social culture within which we exist. His use of compartmentalisation is indicative of a metaphor in his work. The metaphor being we surround ourselves with iconic people in our historic and cultural map of the world in the same way in which our environment physically surrounds us.