51.5072° N, 0.1275° W
37.5665° N, 126.9780° W
New Malden Station
Public Art Programme
A rotating public art platform engaging diaspora, memory, and everyday transit.
Project Overview
On 17 February 2026, New Malden Station reopened its waiting hall with a newly installed Korean station sign and a public art intervention by artist Meekyoung Shin.
Commissioned in collaboration with South Western Railway and local community organisations, the project marks a significant moment in the visibility of the Korean diaspora in London.
AZIMUTH initiated this programme as an ongoing public art platform, transforming the station into a site of cultural memory, circulation, and exchange.
Context
"A gateway to Europe's largest Korean enclave, recontextualized through the lens of contemporary art."
New Malden is not merely a geographic location but a living archive of the diaspora. Rather than treating the station as a site of display, this project approaches it as a site of passage
— where identities are continuously negotiated.
Shin’s work, referencing the erosion of material through her soap sculptures, resonates with the diasporic condition of transformation, displacement, and persistence. By introducing a rotating programme, the project resists the fixity of monumentality and instead proposes public art as an evolving curatorial infrastructure.
Artist
Meekyoung Shin
Series
Soap Sculpture Series
The photographic works presented in the station document Shin’s well known soap sculptures, which reinterpret classical forms through a material that gradually dissolves over time.
Programme Structure
The programme operates as a rotating platform, introducing new artists and works into the station environment over time.
This ongoing structure transforms the site from a static installation into a continuous curatorial platform.
Partners
In collaboration with
South Western Railway
New Malden Residents’ Association
New Malden Business Association
Korea Town Foundation