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| Clifton Bridge, Nottingham, November 2014 |
Although various
themes and ideas run through my current work, it’s hardly a secret that much of
what I do is generally released by some sense of Place in one way or
another. Thus it is, that there are few
experiences I relish more than discovering an exciting or resonant new site
when least expected.
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| Clifton Bridge, Nottingham, November 2014 |
The one pictured
here loomed out of the fog as I drove back into Nottingham from a social
gathering, late one night, recently.
Keen to avoid the dreary inevitability of a hangover, I was the
self-nominated driver and following an unfamiliar route back into town via
someone else’s home drop-off. Whilst it
may have compromised my participation in the revelry slightly, the strategy
proved successful as I was up early enough, and with sufficient energy, to
return for a proper look the next morning, on my way back to Leicester.
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| Clifton Bridge, Nottingham, November 2014 |
The site itself
lies at the point where Nottingham’s Western Ring Road crosses the River Trent
at Clifton Bridge. It’s only a short
distance from the Queens Drive Interchange that I featured a few posts back,
and constitutes a similarly dramatic visual statement in some respects. However, as it lies a little off my normal
beat, it was completely new to me. It’s
another reminder of the value of deliberately seeking alternative, exploratory routes
when out and about, - something I’ve always known, but which can sometimes get
forgotten in the urgency of routine journeys.
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| Clifton Bridge, Nottingham, November 2014 |
As it is, this
site provides loads of fuel for my current concrete fixation, in the form of
double and single spans, flying over the river in parallel. These are supported on the inevitable,
massive slab supports, and rely on gentle, but dynamic arch structures to get
across to the opposite bank. They also
feature a wealth of complex shuttering textures and patterns, (as at Queen’s
Drive), pleasing patinas of weathering and erosion, interesting steel-cage
elements, and the inevitable dialogue between graffiti and the surface coatings
designed to repel it. Of the latter, the
standard, threatening tribal idents were accompanied by a pleasingly inept
frieze, which reminded me slightly of certain Neolithic rock art ‘message
boards’.
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| Clifton Bridge, Nottingham, November 2014 |
If this weren’t
enough, the short walk to the bridges also provided some pleasing primary
yellow interventions into a chromatically drab scene, (always a draw), and also a
section of hazard stripes, (likewise).
I’m always delighted by the arbitrary, self-fulfilling nature of such
Max Headroom signage, and this example was pleasingly juxtaposed against a
blue-painted industrial roofline beyond.
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| Close To Clifton Bridge, Nottingham, November 2014 |
I'll be heading back to this site with my video camera before long I'm sure, and am already wondering about the view back from the opposite bank.
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| Close To Clifton Bridge, Nottingham, November 2014 |
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