Thursday 28 February 2013

Beneath




This post relates to a photographic excursion I made to Birmingham's 'Spaghetti Junction' with my friend Dave Weight at the very start of the year.  Admittedly, it's somewhat 'after the event', partly through a backlog of other things to write about, and also because it's taken a while to sort and post-produce the numerous photos taken on the day amongst the other strands of creative activity I have in hand currently.


It's been a slightly incoherent start to the year artistically, with numerous ideas and themes vying for attention and several projects in research or preparation but relatively little finished product as yet.  As ever, it's apparent that time management and prioritization are essential skills for an artist to develop.  Behind all the exciting spontaneous stuff, some kind of organizational framework is vital if you're to see things through and stay sane in the process.  It's doubly important for those compelled to work in pockets of time around the demands of a day job.


These images weren't collected as raw material for anything specific but may feed tangentially into several themes that I propose to develop over coming months.  Less obliquely, they do coincidentally relate to Shaun Morris' motorway paintings and, his various research images from similar locations, as discussed in recent posts.  Shaun's 'Stolen Car' exhibition is over now but his own blog reveals he is still very involved with these 'sub-arterial' realms so it seems appropriate to chip in my own two-pennyworth.  Sadly, I haven't achieved anything approaching the stunning 'Blade Runner'-esque atmospheres of his recent collaboration with photographer Laura Gale.  Having discussed the potential dangers lurking in such locations at night with Shaun recently, I'm pleased to see he gathered his courage and came back with such booty.

Photo:  Laura Gale & Shaun Morris

Dave and I made our own foray into the concrete world beneath the M6 and the Gravelly Hill Interchange on an early January day of varying light conditions.  I'd originally envisioned the trip over a year previously and we'd discussed it as a more specific intention one night last November whilst exiting Birmingham and peering down as our car left the Aston Expressway to join the main Motorway heading East.


A combination of intuition, map reading and prior consultation of Google Earth suggested Salford Circus as an ideal starting point, and so it proved.  At the centre of this busy roundabout lies a subterranean concrete garden, fed by subways on all sides, from which one can gaze up at several interconnected, elevated carriageways, whilst surrounded by their immense columnar supports.  My own fantasy was of a primeval forest of vast trunks, or even the legs of an immense prehistoric beast.  Dave also, quite rightly, likened them to enormous, vertical cigarettes.  I just hope his hypnosis isn't finally wearing off.

Photo:  David Weight

Although physically connected to its (surprisingly residential) surroundings via pedestrian underpasses, there is a distinct psychological, even hallucinatory isolation about this circular clearing.  It feels like a definite vacancy on the map and one of those contemporary sites that exist only as an interstitial space between planned features.  I was also struck by the quaint, neglected attempts by 70s planners to create a planted communal space of shrubs, hexagonal pavers and textured walls.  They suggest an obsolete utopian attitude to the world they thought they were creating, indeed, the world I myself grew up in.  The film of shade-tolerant algae tinting the paving slightly green speak both of the ultimate triumph of entropy but also, (interestingly, in such a Brutalist environment), of nature, over human ambition.


Predictably, I was reminded of JG Ballard's novel 'Concrete Island' although, unlike his protagonist, we had no trouble leaving our island when the time came.  We lingered for some considerable time and I took numerous still shots but also became increasingly interested both in the immersive sonic qualities of the site and the possibilities of shooting scratch video footage of my progress through the darkened subway tunnels into the light of the 'forgotten world' itself.



Leaving Salford Circus we mounted a road bridge and then descended onto the towpath of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.  Just a few metres along, directly beneath the motorway is Salford Junction where it meets the Grand Union and Tame Valley Canals and it became apparent that the visual adventure had only just begun.  This complex, multi-layered world of waterways, bridges, small buildings, pipe work and power lines is rendered all the more dramatic by its seclusion beneath the motorway's massive canopy. It concentrates various historical phases of transport infrastructure at the same point, and I marveled at how civil engineers had created such a knot of interconnected routes and stratified development over the decades.  I'm also delighted by the realisation that, despite the utilitarian motivation and economical imperatives of their work, an inevitable by-product is the unintentional creation of these zones of wonder.


Photo:  David Weight

Even on a relatively overcast day there is a peculiar quality of light down there, partially caused by light reflecting back from the water towards the underside of the massive road above.  It's far from being a uniformly grey environment and I began to perceive a strange, mellow golden illumination bathing the surrounding concrete and stone surfaces.  Inevitably, there is plenty of graffiti too, punctuating the scene with insistent calligraphy and splashes of synthetic colour.




Loads more shots were taken and we indulged in a little benign trespassing, despite numerous health and safety notices.  Following the line of the road above rather than the diverging towpath, allowed us to end our expedition at a large electrical transformer.  It's inherent dangers were rendered less forbidding by the polychromatic gaiety of graffiti combining with the bold hazard graphics designed to warn us away.  Needless to say, we survived to tell the tale.  Once again, we became fascinated by the acoustic landscape of this place, particularly as it was enlivened by the periodic clattering percussion of trains alongside the constant rush of road traffic overhead.


Photo:  David Weight


I left with a head full of sensory impressions, convinced that we had only scratched the surface(s).  I certainly plan to go back for more before very long.


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