Simon Patterson

Simon Patterson studied at Hertfordshire College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths College, London until 1989. He is interested in information systems, such as the London Underground map, which he humorously subverts in his best known work, The Great Bear. Patterson replaced the names of stations with names of philosophers, film stars, explorers, saints and celebrities, and thus drew parallels between spatial orientation and formations of identity through education and popular culture. In 1996 Patterson was nominated for the Turner Prize.

Patterson is fascinated by the information which orders our lives. He humorously dislocates and subverts sources of information such as maps, diagrams and constellation charts; one of his best known works is The Great Bear…

Works in the Tate collection