(Slight Return) Completed Photographic Project: 'Concrete Cycle'

'Cement Cycle: Element 1 (Path)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29cm X 29 cm, 2015

Whilst doing a little turn-of-the-year housekeeping, I came across this post in a partially written state, and realised that it was a significant loose end in need of tying.  The first post of 2016 seems a good enough time to fill in the gap, - if only in the interests of moving on.  Better six months late than never, - even if there is a suggestion of OCD on my part.

'Cement Cycle: Element 2 (Path)', Digital Print On foamed On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

I alluded to my ‘Cement Cycle’ photographic project several times last year, both whilst it was in progress, and as it hung in June’s ‘Mental Mapping’ exhibition in Rugby [1.].  However, I never actually dealt with its ten separate ‘Elements’, as they appeared in their final state,  complete with final printed images, text captions, and concrete supports, (something that seemed to attract a fair bit of attention in the actual exhibition).

'Cement Cycle: Element 3 (Edge)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

Creating those concrete blocks was, in theory, the biggest technical challenge of ‘Cement Cycle’, (although, if you’d witnessed the pig's ear my ‘professional’ printer made of outputting and cutting the images to the specified dimensions, you might think otherwise).  I toyed with the idea of purpose-casting them, which might have given me complete control over the dimensions, but would have also have necessitating building at least one mold, then dealing with setting times, shrinkage and a lot of stuff I have relatively little experience with.  I knew weight would be an issue too, as they were always intended to be wall-mounted, necessitating the casting of a more complicated frame-shaped form, rather than a simple block.

'Cement Cycle: Element 4 (Edge)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

Instead, I opted to buy ten pierced, ornamental garden wall blocks, (of the sort that were so popular in my 70s childhood), and to chisel out the centres to leave a reasonably chunky concrete frame.  Repeatedly drilling the backs of these further reduced the weight, and their slightly rough texture provided an ideal key over which to build a patinated surface from thin skims of vari-coloured cement and filler.  It wasn’t a bad plan, even though it proved impossible to chisel a single one without also cracking the framing edge, often in several places.  It was easy enough to rejoin them, particularly as the open backs were blanked off with thin MDF, but harder to ensure they remained perfectly square, or absolutely uniform in size.

'Cement Cycle: Element 5 (Island)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

It was important that, within an essentially standard format, each block should have an individual identity through subtle variations in colour, patina and

Implied history, and that they loosely reflect some of the material qualities of the photographic subjects themselves.  I enjoyed drilling, chipping and repeatedly skimming them to achieve this, although power and hand sanding them back to a relatively uniform finish, wasn’t without its element of hard labour, (and a temporary breakdown in neighbourly relations).  The printed photographic images were laminated onto thin plastic board and, once eventually returned at the correct dimensions, these were attached to the front edge of the frames with strong carpet tape.  A mastic adhesive fill, and final sand, flushed them in as seamlessly as possible, and the raw cement was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

'Cement Cycle: Element 6 (Island)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

I won’t pretend the finished results are 100% slick, (deft use of an engineering square would reveal a multitude of minor sins), but as low-tech, relatively affordable methods go, the results are pretty pleasing.  I avoided undue deadline stress by sticking to methods I could mostly control, allowing plenty of lead-time, and just getting stuck in until the job was complete.  They do give the illusion of being possibly solid, I think, and the surfaces are full of pleasing visual nuance.  I’m also pleased with the final proportions; both of each block, and of the overall set of the five pairs as they appeared on the wall in a grid formation.   Even more importantly, - nothing fell off!  I was determined to get some actual concrete or cement into the exhibition somehow, and ultimately this felt like a simple, but effective way to have realised that.

'Cement Cycle: Element 7 (Node)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

I’ve already discussed the rationale behind the images, and the different reasons why cement and concrete also recurred as a significant theme.  If they represent a desire to operate in a medium beyond painting, they also mark an involvement with something a little more consciously conceptual than usual.  It was thus, important to me to maintain a clear link with the source text of Kevin Lynch’s ‘The Image Of The City’ [2.].  I liked the idea of the project resembling a kind of bogus academic or official report, despite its underlying subjectivity, and for a while, I considered applying a direct quote from Lynch’s text to each of the ten ‘Elements’.

'Cement Cycle: Element 8 (Node)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

In the end though, I chose to write my own original captions, - utilising some of Lynch’s terminology to my own less academically rigorous ends.  My hope is that anyone familiar with his (admittedly, somewhat specialist) text would know what I’m getting at, but that each phrase could just as easily represent a pure fiction.  In passing, it’s worth mentioning that this was much the same quality that my co-exhibitor Andrew Smith captured in his script for our ‘Orfeo’ video collaboration, although to somewhat more sumptuous poetic effect.  Lynch also supplied something of an oblique stimulus there, and it was indeed, Andrew who had first referred me to ‘The Image Of The City’, some months previously.

'Cement Cycle: Element 9 (Landmark)', Digital Print On Concrete, 29cm X 29 cm, 2015

One final piece in the puzzle, possibly worth noting, would be the overlap between several of the locations in ‘Cement Cycle’ and in ‘Orfeo’.  I managed to avoid direct repetition, with one notable exception, but in many cases, an image from the former might reveal a still from the latter if the camera was moved a few metres to right or left, or simply panned a few degrees.

'Cement Cycle: Element 10 (Landmark)', Digital Print On Foamex On Concrete, 29 cm X 29 cm, 2015

That’s ‘Cement Cycle’ then.  I think it achieved much of what I set out to do, and certainly pushed the envelope a little in terms of my overall practice.  That is perhaps my main reason for revisiting it here.  It represents the first time I’d considered presenting photography as a definitive, exhibitable statement within my body of work, and that’s definitely something I want to pursue further in 2016. 

'Cement Cycle', 'Mental Mapping: New Work By Andrew Smith & Hugh Marwood', Floor One Gallery,
Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, June 2015

The recognition that a mild conceptual strand runs sporadically through my work remains equally important, and part of that is an implied willingness to work in whatever medium seems most appropriate to a given idea.  In fact, one of my pressing current ambitions is to explore the ways that pieces in different media might evolve out of, or recycle, each other in a less compartmentalised manner.  If a self-contained project like ‘Cement Cycle’ occasionally bobs to the surface, I hope it might also be seen as evidence of a wider process of hybridisation within my overall practice.

That may all sound a bit grand or willfully oblique, I realise.  On a more superficial level, If the conceptual subtleties of ‘CC’ were a little lost on some viewers, - I can at least take some satisfaction in having turned a few heads with my concrete fettling abilities.

Right, - move on…



[1.]:  ‘Mental Mapping: New Work By Andrew Smith & Hugh Marwood’.  8 June – 17 June 2015, Floor One Gallery, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, Little Elborow St, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 3BZ.

[2.]:  Kevin Lynch, ‘The Image Of The City’, Cambridge Massachusetts, The M.I.T. Press, 1960.