Completed Painting: 'Deleuzian Cartography 7'

 

'Deleuzian Cartography 7', Paper Collage, Acrylics & Mixed Media on Panel,
600 mm x 600 mm, 2025

Here's the next in my series of 'Deleuzian Cartography' hybrid paintings, 'Deleuzian Cartography 7'. This is the third produced in this 60 cm square format, and shares the same essential aesthetic as 'DC 5' & '6'. As with those, the piece presents as essentially monochromatic, albeit with numerous nuanced accents of additional colour within the dominant hue. Of course, the saturation levels are ramped-up considerably this time, making this one uncompromisingly, 'The Yellow One'.

Repeat visitors here may be aware of my enthusiasm for 'significant yellow' found objects. It does occur to me that, these days, my approach to colour has shifted dramatically from the atmospheric functions it one fulfilled in my earlier fumblings. Nowadays, the approach seems much more emblematic, often relating to the physical textual or semiotic content of the city, as encountered on my habitual urban derives. In this case, the yellows employed could be related to the high-viz fluoro and safety cadmium that have punctuated the large tracts of west Leicester that have been undergoing redevelopment for many years. This is my regular patch, and I long ago grew accustomed to living adjacent to a vast, ever-evolving construction site, along with its parade of yellow cranes, earth-movers, hazard signage and safety wear. It's no accident that the architectural footprints rising to the surface here relate to buildings that emerged as a result.

The other notable geometric/textual element here is, of course, the parking penalty notice - the collaging of which represents another small departure from previous 'DC' pieces. Car parking is another category of urban subject matter that has cropped up repeatedly here over the years, and notably, another often signified by primary yellow. It also chimes with the themes of territorialisation and deterritorialisation, as juxtaposed throughout the phillosophy of Gilles Deleuze (and Felix Guattari). If the movement and flow of traffic around the city represents one of its key currents, the ever tightening channelling of that movement, and strict  control/monetisation of where vehicles come to rest, is an obvious example of (re)territorialisation. To be honest, I can't think of many more territorial issues than the whole fraught area of parking in cities. 

As a motorist, the occasional collection of of parking tickets, and indeed, the eternal search for unpenalised/affordable parking, may frame that tension in fairly clear-cut terms. However, simplistic, narratives are pretty useless when applied to the complex realities of modern urban life. To those who walk or cycle, the colonisation of the city by motor vehicles may appear as a restriction as much as it is an aid to 'freedom of movement'. Like many others, I find myself a member of all three demographics, and am aware of how one's perceptions are continually altered by each change of chosen transport. The competing associated narratives and prejudices are as subject to processes of de/reterritorialisation as the arena they play out within.

Written without A.I. [For better or worse]

Significant Yellow Item: #2023.Y017

 

All Images: Central Leicester, February 2023

[Reconfigured Translation]:

Only use as intended. High-quality multi-purpose spray paint for use on almost all surfaces. 

Always check for sand compatibility. Clean several thin coats. Grease and dry prime surface. Free if necessary. Mix and listen. Shake well for 1 minute for the click. Ensure a natural spray pattern at room temperature. Hold the canister 250 mm away from the surface and rock the canister back and forth while keeping the canister otherwise parallel to the surface. Ready to use within 4 hours or after 36 hours of painting time. Prevent clogging the paint wrinkle during and after use. Do not turn can upside down. Press the tip for 3 seconds. Protect square pressure container from slight direct sunlight and do not expose it to high temperatures. 50°C may be too much. Do not pierce or burn after use. Do not spray on bare skin or drip onto incandescent materials. Ensure container flow. Empty drains before disposal.

Significant Yellow Item: #2022.Y016 [trans_late / trans_scribe]

 

All Images: Central Leicester, November 2022

[Reconfigured/Translated Audio Transcription]:

This Weather Spoon restaurant suffers from the OIK fallacy. Erase the belief that everything is equal if it is already known. Well, duh! - the point is that the restaurant should take occasion to help the person who does not know what is the restaurant’s custom. No one was there to greet me, the customer. I needed to go to the bartender to ask at what table I may sit. No one came to take an order for a drink or for a meal or to clear the tables. There was a QR code if I had had use of a real smart waiter or waitress. I got up and went to the bar, maybe in order to phone my table to get the table number, or to pay for my order. There was no way of memorising my table number. There was no menu at the bar. There is an irony in the fact that there was on the customer's table a very large paper magazine. The food/drink menu could have been printed in the news (a tiny card could have explained that). Refusing a menu to the customer is Covid prevention. The map could have led me to the area where I noticed several elderly ladies had trouble. Negotiating these steps, chicken was brought to my table by someone you have to fetch alone. It would seem that the steps should be transformed into a ramp.

The chicken was very tender and must have been processed very well to be ready to be served so quickly. The grill marks on the processed chicken looked like the ones on the regal chickens. One must go to seek salt at another table, and condiments at another table full of coffee and probably tea by itself. There's nothing in the missing menu to indicate it. I wanted another drink but I didn't know what would happen to my plate if I had to go to the bar and get another drink. Note in hand then, I left - asking the scorer not to take my plate (there was no one there to protect my plate from things other people might do to it). I noticed there were menus visible on the way out but not visible on entering. The Weather Spoon was very successful with this mysterious system but for me it's quite short. When I come back to England I will never again try to eat at a restaurant.

Significant Yellow Items: #2022.Y014 & #2022.Y015

 

All Yellow Gates Images: West Leicester, February 2022

As a child, I always had a somewhat troubled relationship with numbers. I laboured over maths lessons, and sometimes wonder if I was actually suffering from a mild case of dyscalculia. For a while, around 5 years-old, I even introduced a number called 'Twenteen' (between 19 and 20), when counting. That caused definite problems, as you can imagine. However, I have since come to adore the poetry of the concept - and often speculate on how one might write twenteen numerically (suggestions welcomed).

As an adult, I have contented myself with the fact that, some basic arithmetic and a small  facility with fractions and percentages, the ability to measure, and a moderate grasp on geometry, are about all I've really needed to get by. As I always suspected, simultaneous and quadratic equations appear to have had next to no bearing on my experience. This isn't to downgrade anyone who lives for numbers, but maybe just a recognition that we all speak slightly different languages - and that a quality-orientated world view is just as valid as a quantitative one.

All Hydrant Plaque Images: West Leicester, April 2022

One aspect of my numerical interactions which does remain intriguing, is a prevailing tendency to associate specific numbers with certain chromatic values. For me, 5 has always been situated somewhere within the yellow to yellow-orange spectrum. Apparently, that remains the case.  

Significant Yellow Items #2022.Y013(a), #2022.Y013(b), #2022.Y013(c), #2022.Y013(d) & #2022.Y013(e)

All Original Images: North West Leicester, February 2022

[Translation]:

Dozens of young protestors in Lost Rib last year were accused of a "embarrassment bill" - a serious violation of public order.  The amassed non-voter Police and Crown Prosecution cases seem to be the biggest luxury crimes against protestors since 1980.

The force is looking for clashes between police and opponents who are attacking a police bill and a designated offence, which allows police to recover violent interventions outside a police station in Lost Rib on March 21 last year.

He was accused of "polishing revenge" and making a political impression.  Police officers have named a large number of the attackers, a police station and a nocturnal police officer.  Afterward, however, they heard testimony of the commotion of the legislators, that the magistrates had died along with the protestors, and that the intruders were disturbing the village.

The entire Parliamentary Party in Democracy and the Constitution (PPDC) has heard that the use of police force, including dogs, sticks and shields, which is called "blood", is often disproportionate to the succeeding days.  The report says the man who killed him is not clear, but there is a "sign and serious" attack on police order lies.

All Photo-Manipulations: February 2022

At least 62 protesters reported injuries during the week, including 27 who treated head injuries at the hospital, while 44 officers were injured.  After the bones have been broken, the bones are broken, and the points of the lungs are broken.

Protestants oppose this because it is rarely used, and criticism of the criminal code requires that the regulator of public courts be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.  An analysis of the Home Office figures shows only 20 people were killed in the 2011 riots.

Significant Yellow Item: #2021.Y004.2 (Third Encounter)

All Images: August 2021

The third instance was characterised by a profound enmeshing.  The grid of cells became scalar and realigned with an architectonic reverie.  The implications of this visitation were being made concrete - stacked within the greater fabric  and swatch-clad.  The clear evidence of adaptation indicated that infiltration was already well advanced  

Time flowed in opposing directions. This new encounter aligned with a spent golden hour.  The presaging was retrogressive, and testament to the wasted disease years.  Chronology -  elasticated.  Wavelengths - extended.

The theory of colour could not be ignored.  But this was the fluid triumph of lumens.  The functions of glow and shimmer defied cataloguing.  Standard frequencies shifted and emanated from within.  Geometry began to dissolve.  It was a sublime facade.

Within the container, the occupants might survey yet greater perspectives.  The loss of resolution signified a greater unification.  Might even a subtle warping be detected, perhaps?  They could gaze down upon the glistening lines, as travellers returned, speculating upon new, unimagined realisms.  Or else - south and east, to the dispatching zone, from whence the infection took hold.

Significant Yellow Items #2021.Y011, #2021.Y012(a) & #2021.Y012(b)

 

North Leicester, July 2021

In each instance an interruption of the normal flow is effected (terminal/diversionary).

Illumination is denied, and the signals rendered provisional (an insufficiency of faith).

Amenity becomes impediment (the obstacle course reconfigured).

The cadmium alert makes its predictable reappearance (maximum contrast).

Inclined facets feature prominently (the chamfer and the pyramid).

The ground plane is a key feature (micro-mapping of reduced topographies).

Central Leicester, March 2021

The City patches.  The City renews.  The City prioritises.

Significant Yellow Item: #2021.Y010

 

Significant Yellow Item: 2021.Y010, Central Coventry, May 2021

Here, a small section of the city's biology is left exposed, twisting through ninety, and ninety again.  Tender vulnerability is cordoned within a guardian wasp-geometry - drawing only attention.  An exclusion zone extends on the diagonal.  Diverse angularity dominates throughout.

Transcending small debris, and the creep of oxides, the defining edges remain crisp here.  A remarkable calm prevails behind the scenes.  Soft light seeps from the reverse of a disregarded future.  The elephant-memory will not prevail.

 

This is a detail to cut-out and keep.  I might linger for a considerable term here - welcome seclusion within a small fold of time.