Performance Art

IS it a train or is it art?

Having experienced Simon Starling’s Shedboatshed (Mobile Architecture No 2), Damien Hirst’s pickled animals and Anorak’s very own Vomit In Sock, we suspect Virgin Trains are engaging in the world of conceptual art.

Just take a step back from the edge and get a look at their new work. It looks like a train. When you book the ticket to travel on it, you are told it is a train. And you are charged a train price.

But then at the time of boarding the train it is magically transformed into a bus.

And those who boarded the Trainbus from Birmingham to Rugby last Saturday were met not by a train diver but by a Polish mime artists who had no idea about the area.

The train will not be running along the track but travelling by road. And what road it uses is up to you.

A supervisor boards the Trainbus and addresses the passengers in cryptic tones. Says he: “It will really help you as your driver is Polish, doesn’t speak much English and he doesn’t know the route.”

A woman who knows the way volunteers to sit by the diver and give him instructions.

This is art in the making, and in the community. And it might well be coming to a street near you. All aboard the Trainbus!

Posted: 31st, July 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink