Here After: Craig & Karl Turn Abandoned Petrol Station into Pop-Up Arts Venue

Here After: Craig & Karl Turn Abandoned Petrol Station into Pop-Up Arts Venue

Artists Craig & Karl have added a welcome splash of colour to an abandoned petrol station in London’s White City, transforming the forgotten structure into a multi-coloured canvas. ‘Here After’ is a nod to brightly coloured television test cards and lies in a district of London with strong connections to British broadcasting, located between the BBC’s former headquarters and the corporation’s original Media Village.designboom writes that “the previously unused site has been given new life through the addition of vibrantly painted stripes and colourful geometries, which wind and bend around former pumps and the station’s back wall.” The intervention is the first stage of a broader project to regenerate the disused gas station as a fully fledged pop-up art venue in England’s capital and most populous city. “We view this project as the petrol station’s second life, or ‘wonder years’, which led us to use the words ‘here after’ as a reference to heaven or utopia,” said the duo. They added: “Now that the petrol station has fulfilled its duty, so to speak, it’s free to enjoy itself.” Craig & Karl are Craig Redman and Karl Maier who, despite being based on different sides of the Atlantic (London and New York), “collaborate daily to create bold work that is filled with simple messages executed in a thoughtful and often humorous way.” According to designboom: “Craig & Karl have adopted this particular palette and composition in order to echo the unique history of the site… In an almost chaotic fashion, ‘Here After’ blends the duo’s signature stylistic cues with nostalgically-familiar television test signal patterns.” This isn’t the first abandoned petrol station turned art canvas that we’ve reported on. Several years ago Dublin-based urban artist Maser brought a forlorn filling station back to life, while the ‘Quilted Gas Station‘ in New York was a commentary on global oil dependence.