Tunnel Tourists was inspired by living in Thamesmead, South East London, in the run up to the Coronation. Whilst Thamesmead was designed to be a modernist utopia, Poundbury was designed according to the traditionalist principles of Prince Charles. As a younger man, he was super-critical of places like Thamesmead - invented in the 1960s - calling post-war housing “a victory of ideology and arrogance over humanity and common sense”.
So, the artists travelled to Poundbury - the place he invented in the 1990s - to check out his alternative. Once they’d recovered, they began drawing, writing and designing to produce this zine. It compares the two places, while touching on nostalgia, taste,
inequity and hate. IT’S A CORONATION SPECIAL!
Chloe Cooper and Nicky Sutton started working together in 2022, inspired by the sheer excitement of living near Abbey Wood station when the Elizabeth line opened. They made their first limited run zine called Tunnel Tourists, where they rated every Elizabeth line station between Abbey Wood and Paddington, leaving a page for the viewer to rate their own Bond Street. After entering Tunnel Tourists into the ArtWorks Open 2022 exhibition, they were awarded the show prize of putting on a collaborative solo exhibition. Tunnel Tourists II was then produced for that prize exhibition among other artworks within the theme (26 June - 4 July 2023 at the ArtWorks Project
Space, Barbican Art Group Trust, London).
Instagram: @tunneltourists
A 28 page, fully riso-printed zine in two colours, A5 approx. Limited run of 100
Printed by Pagemasters.co
Published in June 2023