Commissioned by the Museum of London, Graeme Miller’s ongoing project opened in July 2003 as a massive semi-permanent sound work and off-site exhibition of the contemporary collection of the Museum of London. It is arguably the largest sculptural entity in the capital

Stretching across from Hackney Marshes to Redbridge, the M11 Link Road was completed in 1999 after the demolition of 500 homes, including Miller’s own, amid dramatic and passionate protest. Concealed along the three-mile route, 20 analogue transmitters continually broadcast hidden voices, recorded testimonies and rekindled memories of those who once lived and worked where the motorway now runs. The narratives encapsulated go back almost 100 years and run up until the last drastic moments of these buildings. They appear as they are recalled and spoken about.

Over these years some of the transmitters have been lost – to a lorry crashing into a lamppost, to accidentally being taken down by contractors, to weather, time and entropy. Amazingly many have endured and have become an almost secret layer of the landscape of East London. It is not only time to refurbish this work, but time to look at how it works in time and how public art endures or de-commissions itself.

With this in mind Graeme Miller is currently looking to stage Re-LINK taking place September 24th and 25th 2022: the first annual 48-hour restoration of the entire network that will also include a reflective public conversation between former residents, interviewees and interviewers, sound and radio artists, eco-activists and, as ever, the wider curious walking public