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| Safe & Secure Parking: Digbeth, Birmingham, August 2013 |
Sorting through
the photos from the Birmingham cycle ride discussed in my last post, I realised
that a couple more specific themes had emerged on the day. The first focused on car park parking signage,
a few images of which I’ve included here.
As subjects go, it sounds pretty mundane, I realise, but anyone using a
motor vehicle in cities nowadays knows that parking the blinkin’ thing is a
significant part of the whole deal. In
that context, those familiar ‘P’
symbols become something many of us engage with on a frequent basis.
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| 50p?: Digbeth, Birmingham, August 2013 |
As I’ve immersed
myself deeper in different aspects of the urban experience, I’ve started to
think increasingly about the ways we move around cities. On a superficial level, this involves comparing
the relative merits of certain modes of transport,
(walking/cycling/cars/trains, etc.), for the urban explorer. On a deeper level is how these different
technologies of movement influence our actual perception of the territories we traverse. That’s of natural interest to the artist and,
hopefully, something I’ll discuss further in the future.
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| Mixed Messages: Digbeth, Birmingham, August 2013 |
Larger still is the
whole issue of how layers of infrastructure control the entire pattern of our
lives. Movement and transport are
clearly a major element here but it’s much wider than that, encompassing
communications, utility supply, provision of services and products, public
policy, and much else besides. There’s
far more here than I can incorporate into my current work, (or this post), but
it all goes into the mental store of themes for possible future work. For now, I’m scratching the surface through
the representations of road systems evident in my current ‘Belgrave Gate Project’ paintings (whose genesis belongs in my own motorised
commutes), and photographic explorations of ‘Spaghetti Junction’ and of waterways,
roads and railways in Birmingham and Newark.
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| 'Belgrave Gate: Yours 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel, 100 cm X 100 cm, 2013 |
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| Elevated By-Pass: Newark, Nottinghamshire, 2013 |
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| Gravelly Hill, Birmingham, August 2013 |
One of the practical
bonuses of the recent trip to Brum was the ease of parking in the Digbeth area
where our expedition began. As a
transitional area with pockets of relative dereliction, Digbeth’s streets
contain various yards and vacant lots that have been transformed into ad hoc
car parking. In an obvious way, this in
itself signifies how much cars still dominate city life. With little investment in resurfacing and, at
best, sporadic security provision, these private parking empires seem free to try
to cut each other’s throats through competitively low charges. Having paid £2.00 for 24 hours we discovered
later that we were near the top end of the market!
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| Almost Wilfully Inept: Digbeth, Birmingham August, 2013 |
As is demonstrated here, many seem to feature a
fairly random approach to signage, providing ever more grist to my visual mill. Of course, the tension between the supposed
freedom of independent car travel and its practical accommodation goes on. Cheap parking is not free parking and clearly, there’s still a need for ‘No Parking’ signs around Digbeth too. I’ve included a couple of charming homemade
examples of those to complete the picture.
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Far More Effective As Graphic Communication But Still Pleasingly Ham-Fisted:
Digbeth, Birmingham, August 2012 |
As a transitional area with pockets of relative dereliction, Digbeth’s streets contain various yards and vacant lots that have been transformed into ad hoc car parking. In an obvious way, perforated window signs
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