Four Plaques (In The Main)

All Images: Central Leicester, May 2016

I've been meaning to document these for ages, not least because they seem to tick a number of my favourite boxes:

• They definitely fit my current preoccupation with the idea of 'The Same, But Different'. That's the case in terms of variations within an overall theme, but also, in each case, within a formal grid too. 

• They are all about formal geometry, but far more about the irregularities that occur within it -  than about a search for mechanistic perfection. 

• Each is a little symphony of greys, white and severely muted colour - and takes its palette from the local colour of industrial materials and surface coatings.

• They are yet another example of the versatility of cast concrete, - in this case, of puddingstone-like variety.  This gives them a profoundly rugged aspect - not unlike an ancient wayside cross, or the like.  (Note how much hidden colour results from the addition of plentiful coarse aggregate). 

• This only serves to emphasise how, whilst purely functional in intent, they are in fact gloriously totemic.  The four together seem to take on a significance not unlike standing stones or Easter Island heads.

• As ever, the forces of entropy are clearly at work.  It's there in the weathering of the concrete, the grime on the wall behind, the corrosion of the fixing bolts, and most gloriously - in the interplay of patinated, oxidising metal, and ruined paintwork.

• It's also hinted at in the slightly quirky lean of the member of the group at the far left.  In itself, this draws attention to the irregular spacing throughout the group.  Variation within regularity is thus revealed again - this times in the intervals.

• The plaques are yet more examples of urban text.   I love the matter-of-fact typefaces employed, and the interchangeable system of tiles used to effectively type-set each selection of dimensions.  I also like the way each one combines both embossed and incised characters.  (Now I'm wondering about making a set of rubbings).

• Each legend is allusive, clearly giving a set of directions in the form of dimensional coordinates.  They are a clue to a whole other, invisible layer of infrastructure beneath the city's surface.

• Prior knowledge that EMGB = East Midlands Gas Board makes it easy enough to deduce they are gas main indicators.  But, in the era of privatisation and deregulation, EMGB is itself an anachronism.  Those pipelines are buried beneath the fabric of the city for obvious, functional reasons, but occupy a stratum of historical time also.