Faisal AbduAllah: Route 12:36 / Project X

Route 12:36 is an ongoing public art project comprising a series of artworks, commissioned by the South London Gallery, to be presented in the advertising spaces on Routemaster buses Nos. 12 & 36.

Following its successful launch in March of this year, with works by Blast Theory and Grennan & Sperandio, the South London Gallery have asked Faisal Abdu’Allah to devise a work that will invite participation from travellers, bringing an experience of contemporary art into an urban, everyday context.

For Route 12:36, Faisal Abdu’Allah will produce Project X, a website of images. Advertisements announcing the project will be installed on all 12 & 36 buses and the website can be accessed as of 8 November 1999.

On entering the site, viewers will be confronted with a series of images, sound and text. They are invited to become ‘art critics’, by selecting their two favourite images, providing a commentary on the site and perhaps even engaging in an e-mail conversation with the artist. The most popular images will then be exhibited on the buses 6 December 1999 - 9 January 2000.

The website address is www.faisal-abduallah.com. There will be public access to the site via a terminal situated by the information desk at Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Road, London SE5. The site is also linked to the South London Gallery website www.southlondonart.com and the Camberwell College of Arts website www.camb.linst.ac.uk

Faisal Abdu’Allah trained in fine art printmaking at the Royal College of Art. Central to the development of his art practice was a re-reading of and subsequent conversion to the Islamic faith in 1991. His work has developed from fine art printmaking to the use of photo-etching, mixed media and photographic installation-based work.

In previous work, he has drawn on personal experience and that of his friends and other members of the African-Caribbean community, often juxtaposing different media and forms to examine what it means to be a young black male living in Britain, to be religious, to be denied a history of individual identity and expression and to be marginalised.

Faisal Abduallah
Route 12:36 / Project X