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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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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