Belgrave Gate 15: Time To Rethink?

Here's a subject that has appeared on here more than once before.  After all though, one important function of this blog appears to be to chronicle the gradual (and not so gradual), processes of change within my urban surroundings.  I've always loved the juxtaposition of inherent blankness and surface nuance in this ad hoc facade, but this latest incarnation is particularly enjoyable.

I find it almost impossible not to read that newly revealed section as an implied window (onto what - exactly?), although it is, of course merely the result of a couple of panels having been removed. I love the process of entropy that suggests, whilst preferring not to think too hard about what might have happened if they actually fell.  That pavement below is a pretty busty pedestrian thoroughfare at most times of the day.  I am also struck by the way the edges of several of the upper boards are warping and curling with age.

Clearly, the Council's ongoing battle to negate the boards functioning as an informal bulletin board continues.  As you can see, the ragged edge between the grey and dismal brown sections, and the merest hints of past text re-emerging through the torn brown surface are currently in a rather pleasing state of balance.

Finding myself down on Belgrave Road to photograph the building yet again made me think again about my 'Belgrave Gate Project' and how it became stalled some time back as my attention turned to what eventually became the phase of work featured in the recent 'Mental Mapping' exhibition.  In fact, this boarded building is one of the first landmarks that caused me to pause for thought in that part of town in the first place.  I've not given up on the 'BGP' altogether though, and the original premise of a Psychogeographically informed investigation into different facets of a given district is as applicable to my work as it ever was.  I'm still just as much engaged with the idea of doing so through a variety of media as I was when I first engaged with the project.  In fact, some of those intentions actually percolated through the 'Mental Mapping' work in slightly less open-ended ways and perhaps that is the crux of the matter.

All Images:  Belgrave Road, North Leicester, June 2015

Taking some of what I learned from the work produced in the last year, it may be that there is scope to reassess some of the perimeters of the 'Belgrave Gate Project', and to redraw them in a slightly tighter, more focused manner for future consideration.  There are a lot of things up in the air just now, as I take a little time out from my own work to recharge my creative batteries.  As the various possibilities start to coalesce into something more definite, in the fullness of the time, it will be interesting to see if I find myself haunting that particular quarter of Leicester with my cameras on a regular basis, all over again.