Liberty

Part of the appeal of adopting a Psychogeographic attitude is in the making of unexpected discoveries and psychic or temporal connections in a location that may not have been predictable on setting out.  It’s about taking vertical slices through the strata of history and multiple meanings within an environment.

In my last post I discussed the new tower block under construction near my home.  That resulted from a planned trip out with the camera and a clear intention to document it.  In seeking out different camera angles I actually covered a significant portion of the surrounding area on foot, gaining a deeper sense of the building’s impact on an entire neighbourhood and of the physical and atmospheric identity of those streets in their own right.  It also allowed me to focus on a monument to the economic heritage of the area and to make lateral connection with contemporary social issues in the process.

In a previous incarnation the area around the new tower was fairly industrial. The Liberty Shoe Company – a mainstay of local manufacturing, once stood opposite having adopted the name in 1921 when a stone replica of the statue of Liberty was erected on the factory’s parapet.  Lady Liberty was a noted landmark for decades and, amongst other things, a good luck totem for Leicester City fans bound for nearby Filbert Street.

The long decline in Britain and Leicester’s manufacturing base over recent decades saw the factory abandoned.  The statue was ‘decorated’ by pranksters, (at some personal risk), then put into storage prior to the building’s demolition.  Superstitious fans maintain this coincided with City’s decline and fall into the third tier of the football league.  However, Liberty has risen again as redevelopment of the road layout has seen her renovated and placed on a plinth to preside over the traffic sweeping/crawling around the new 'Swan Gyratory’.  The Foxes have undergone a partial revival but still pine for Premiership status.

Whilst taking photos, I thought about how the tower of student homes and Liberty’s transformation from mascot of local manufacturing back into a more abstract symbol, (be it of a noble aspiration or the branding of a ‘quarter’), represent the transition from an economy based on making to one of knowledge and ideas.  I also noticed that, as is usual nowadays, my movements were monitored by a CCTV camera perched high above the junction.  The ironic juxtaposition of liberty and surveillance was reinforced by a fortuitous graffito discovered as I walked away along the river bank below.

Maintaining or Curtailing?