Written City 7: Entropic Gates 1

West Leicester, June 2013

These industrial steel gates close off a car breaker’s and repair yard not far from Leicester’s old Great Central Railway station.  I first photographed them back in 2011 when they displayed the visually glorious effects of the long-term, heavy corrosion consuming both their original paintwork, and the tangle of subsequently applied graffiti tags.  I was very attracted to them for some time before they eventually provided the inspiration for the third panel in my ‘Sick 1’ quartet of paintings, completed in March 2012.

Not long after that project was completed, the gates were renewed, appearing first in heavy, industrial primer, (as documented in April 2012), and subsequently, under a top coating of utilitarian dark grey enamel.  I’m sure the company proprietors behind the gates felt they now presented a smarter, more business-like face to the world but I couldn’t help feeling a certain diminution in the neighbourhood’s visual riches.

'Sick 1', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on 4 Panels,
60 cm X 300 cm (Overall), 60 cm X 60 cm (Each Panel)

'Sick 1 (C)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel (With Sand & Plaster),
60 cm X 60 cm

This whole area, close to my home, is one I pass through regularly and have documented on numerous occasions already.  I remain drawn to its mix of neglect, dilapidation and layers of industrial history, punctuated by the various businesses still hanging on with varying degrees of fortune.  Despite the considerable age of certain architectural remnants here, (not least the station, railway arches and burnt-out Friars Mills factory), the general mood is of impermanence and ad-hoc opportunism.  After their renovation, the steel gates’ main significance to me became as a symbol of the endless processes of urban decay, repair and regeneration that always fascinate me.  They had clearly entered a phase in which entropy was to be held at bay, for the time being at least.

West Leicester, April 2012

Friars Mills, West Leicester, August 2012

However, my journeys made past the gates in recent weeks reveal a new crop of graffiti tags blossoming across their impassive grey surfaces.  Corrosion has made no inroads as yet, so the stark calligraphy remains insolently ‘on the surface’ and unmediated by any natural chemistry.  Substrate, surface coatings and criminal damage still maintain a standard, layered hierarchy and it’s not impossible that attempts will be made to paint over the tags, at least in a temporary stand-off.  Nevertheless, through the intervention of the aerosol bandits, it already feels like a new phase of the greater entropic cycle has begun all over again.


Postscript:

I should point out that I mean no criticism of or judgement on the companies operating behind these gates.  I'm sure that what one person's 'visual riches' are another's constant irritant.  Whilst I see my my own role here as an artist/observer, I also seek to maintain a subjective response to the urban environment.  Obviously, I can't realistically trumpet such an attitude  without admitting there are are at least three sides to this story.