A PASSAGE IN AN URBAN JIGSAW installation 2009
...Tumbling rubble and pebbles from deep under the city brought to the surface where ripples of brick hit against the Jerwood making its foundations creak and the art work tremble. Where did I leave my bicycle and when did I lock my foot to the machinery, becoming a piece of an urban jigsaw reflected in the glass façade or the coffee cup? Floating passed, a train to the south, to the childhood I hardly recognise. A machine pulling at the concrete as I write, turning the savoury sun into sweet droplets for the travellers passing their destinations and the thoughts you once offered me in the rain. No.1 Pepper Street. Mould, holes and echoes on the right side of a watery divide. I settle back in my shoes and watch passers-by and a tree playing with its shadow on the brick. Where to or from? What time? A lady speaks an African dialect on a phone in a courtyard of people who couldn't be more different. I look at my feet as a plane passes and an animal rustles my thoughts back to times inside, where the walls keep me safe and I think of a future; an end to the journey or a moment of knowing. If only sign posts contained answers rather than possibilities. The bird calls. I turn the page...
...Follow the thread to the garden behind the wall next to the pointy cottages, which once housed workers and families but now sell for 100s of 1000s of £s. Where did you lead us? The drunks look over the wall disappointingly; muttering words about the uninvited guests who only turn up when the sun comes out and pollen hangs in the air. What about the alcohol in your blood, does it really stop you from thinking before speaking or taking a tip from an old friend? One step to the next, on again to where young girls were buried and tower blocks will be built. Ribbons blown in the strong breeze, a train echoes on tracks, police sirens follow a hum in a tunnel; I wink and pull at my nose in the sun. You are being given a parking ticket, you forget that this is no longer south but central, always growing that little bit taller, and all those habits you learnt as we grew up are no longer acceptable in this forest. You fell, I tumble, she was murdered with an axe, poisoned by a lover and buried alive. Move to the present before you get lost underground. Faster moves my pencil, quicker dances the actress, harder go the footsteps until you drop, I drop and the city burns down.
EXTRACTS FROM INSTALLATION TEXT
A Passage in an Urban Jigsaw is a mixed media installation created for the Un:Place project and exhibition (curator Beatrice Jarvis) at the Jerwood Space in 2009. Produced as a 2-dimensional Panorama in mixed-media and later transferred (in scale) onto the tabletops of the cafe space, it is a site-responsive work reflecting on the building and its surroundings. Text, drawing and photographs combine within the image. If all the tables where placed in order the entire Panorama could be viewed. However, the natural use of the space means that we see breaks in the tables, creating separations in the image and a disruption of its order. This offers the cafe visitors a large-scale jigsaw to explore whilst using the space. The collage becomes a map of memory and time as well as a picture of architecture and cityscape.
The collage becomes a map of memory and time as well as architecture and cityscape. Through her journey, Alys engages in a dialogue with the urban environment and its inhabitants, whilst uncovering reflections on her past, growing up in the area (South London). A re-mapping of sites/sights evolve through the principle of walking and observing the city, creating a unique perspective of the urban environment and providing an alternative window for the café visitor to look through.
Read Exhibition Press Release here
On Wednesday 10th June 2009, An Urban Seminar accompanying the Un:Place exhibition exploring the nature of the city as creative stimulus. In the afternoon, I led a small group of artists, researchers, architectes and urban planners in a workshop that drew from the methodology behind my installation 'A Passage in an Urban Jigsaw' and explored the possibilities of creating a collective Panorama of the area. Below is a link to an photo album documenting this Workshop.
LINK to Album
Photograph credits: Stephen Williams.