Nine of the United Kingdom’s ten busiest train stations are in London. Liverpool Street station is the fifth busiest station with over 11 million people entering and exiting the station every year. Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connects to the London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London.The station opened in 1874, as a replacement for Bishopsgate station as the Great Eastern Railway's main London terminus. By 1895, it had the most platforms of any London terminal station. It was built as a dual-level station, with provision for the Underground and tube.Crowds of people rush here, they move fast without hesitating. The station is fulfilled with noise, nervousness, anxiety and stimulation. Passengers come to leave, and leave only to come back again.

I have been to the station as a passenger. Things changed when I visited as an observer. The first time, I set a two hour timer for myself. I went there at half past seven. At first, I drew the entrance of the station. London was getting cold at that time. I held my sketchbook in the wind, standing on the street and I was shivering. Once I finished the first sketch within a few minutes. I thought it would be a productive night. But as I entered the station, and wanted to do a quick sketch of pedestrians, I found it was extremely hard. You have no time to think, but have to draw immediately to capture the moment. There is no time to deliberate. Holding a sketchbook, standing extremely close to a random stranger is so weird. I have to be cautious with my observations. After a few pages of sketches, I decided to find a place to sit or stand to stay in a place for a longer time for longer observation: somewhere under the electronic display, a bench or corner in the station. It worked at the beginning. People around me came and went, but I couldn't bear the feeling of isolation anymore. During the last forty minutes of the two hours, I took a break, went to a shop and bought something. I shifted my position from an observer to a participant.

When I sketch, I am in a kind of mindflow. The brushwork is the trace of the moment. This work explores what can be captured in such moments, taking a quick paced, changing environment as the context. As the environment changes so rapidly, I am pushed to explore how much can be captured with just a few gestural lines made quickly on the page. As described above, the lines also reflect my own anxieties, the pressure on my body and mind in this environment, and the conspicuousness of someone who goes to a place of movement to pause, watch and draw. Sketching in such a situation is the way in which drawing can be an expression in itself. It can hold a specific presence and place that you take yourself to.