Phone Booth Remix

Phone Booth Remix

Week 1- Art
There are a number of iconic images that immediately come to mind when you hear “London”, like Big Ben, Parliament, double decker buses, perhaps the royal family and those distinguished red phone booths.  In todays age of cell phones and portable computers the booths are becoming more of a tourist thrill than a use of communication.  Unfortunately the booths are starting to disappear from the city, it is hard to picture London without those red boxes.  In fact the phone boxes, as they used to be called have been around since 1925.  Giles Gilbert Scott’s design was chosen by the newly established Royal Fine Art Commission, for a national phone kiosk.  Later Gilbert Scott redesigned his original design in honor of King George V’s Silver Jubilee.

This year those classic red booths received fresh looks, just in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and London 2012.  Well known designers and artists used their imaginations to change the Gilbert Scott phone box into creative works of art, which are spotted around the city until July 16th.  The project is called BT ArtBox, eventually the pieces of art will be auctioned off to raise money for ChildLine’s 25th anniversary.

During my visit to the London Tower I was thrown off by the sight of what looked like a giant white chocolate bar sliced into several pieces.  As I moved closer to the chocolate bar it began transformed into a chopped up telephone booth.  My eyes were not deceiving me, it was in fact a white severed booth, titled Slip by artist and designer Gerry Judah.  One of my classmates mentioned that she had heard about this art project, it reminded us of similar projects back home like the painted panda bears in Washington D.C..  When we came across our second BT ArtBox we were no longer confused but very excited to find more around the city.  The second box, “Fantastic Golden Wiggle Pagoda” was found next to Westfield Mall, only blocks away from the Olympic Park.  Zondra Rhodes, a fashion designer who put London on the map of international fashion in the 1970s designed this beautiful white booth with a gold wiggle pattern.

Today along the riverside as I walked past City Hall I found two more of these creations, the first, “London Calling” by Peter Anderson which pays homage to the English punk rock band The Clash.  The box next to this designed by Aboud + Aboud, titled “Shocking Converstion” looked like the color was leaking out of the bottom.  Further on my walk I discovered yet another booth, “Welcome to London”, it was covered in typography displaying all 230 languages spoken, representing the multiculturalism in London created by London and Partners.  This last booth brought my count to a total of five redesigned phone booths!  There are 77 more BT ArtBoxes throughout the City I will be sure to keep my eyes peeled for these artistic creations which have redefined the classic red booth.