eltono | traces

Characteristically simple, subtle and effective, Eltono hits us again with his lateral take on the surfaces and inscriptions of the city. Traces

punctuate by gersham

This is one of those things that we met during our research for the pending book Urban Maps, but it never made the cut.

Sourced from the early web based graf site n-igma by Dek. He didn’t know then and we don’t know now; who and why?

All that can be said here is that type characters and the space between is/was a distinct counterpoint to graf that conventionally is about fills and coverage. Obviously type and fonts have a history in graf, as Steve Powers states, ‘The first time I saw somebody paint their name as a font, it was SANE, and it was a complete shock’ (interview Jan 2010)

Most of all… we like it.

anti-graffiti and urban scars

The notion that a graffiti artist allows the space within which it is contained to define the scale and form of their letters is easily identifiable in the practice of many artists. The limits of space and the limits of their bodies are often cited in texts as these are typically art history constructs which allow academics to place graffiti neatly into some skewed western tradition, thus increase its acceptance as an art form as one which may be part of a contemporary discourse. Scouring the early entries od Momo’s blog led to an introduction to Fred Radtke, who seems to have considerable notoriety in the US as a vigilante graffiti remover. Unsanctioned, but tolerated, Radtke will answer calls from the public and paint over graffiti using his trademark grey paint, he is commonly referred to as the Grey Ghost. He is not consistent in his chosen tone of grey and an extended ‘dialogue’ on the same wall over several months between Radtke and his opponents can result in some interesting abstract compositions. The irony that exists here is that Radtke does not distinguish between illegal and legal graffiti and has landed himself with a $20,000 fine after controversially painting over an officially sanctioned ‘artwork’ by UK pretender Banksy. The ‘pieces’ themselves have a minor discourse with urban space, the morals and politics surrounding the activity are impassioned, but incidental to the accidental emergence of anti-art-art.

re_map does not condone the work of Banksy in any way shape or form.

Images are from various Flickr accounts.

Abstract Motion No.1

Abstract Motion No.2

The solution, the problem, neither or both?

interstice and residue

The C20 art and social theory concerning ‘the everyday’ precedes and overtly informs the architectural fascination with space now defined as ‘interstitial’ or ‘residual’. Lefebvre, Lyotard, Ruscha, Smithson and Baldessari all played their part in exposing the mundane and banal and subsequently the specifics of the spatial orders of capitalism.

Niche space, leftover space and blurred territory are all by-products of urban policy and processes; motorway junctions are particularly explicit providers of well defined residue, space without programme. Below is a copy of an article from CTRL_ALT_DELETE, a small fanzine out of Sheffield, by the author of Autotoxicity. The piece, M1 – part one (Hostile Environments) is about living in the space carved out by the motorway junction where the A1(M) meets the M18.

Business, science and office parks at the periphery have their own brand of broad delineating fields of thorny soft landscape gently interspersed by mesh fencing, vast tracts of this boundary condition consume our edge cities as a mediator between security and greenspace policy.

Recently, Gordon Matta-Clark’s Fake Estates project has been brought to the authors’ attention from a host of different sources. He bought up 15 plots that were remnants of land deals, the carving up of larger sites or slicing through sites with pieces of municipal infrastructure. These were usually pieces of land that would be considered useless in development terms, but clearly the process of their creation fascinated Matta-Clark. The City of New York auctioned them for apporximately $35.00 each. GM-C only had the opportunity to document the sites through assembly of the title deeds and a physical and photogrpahic survey, before moving on to alternative projects. This is said to be symptomatic of the man who lived out his art, acting as quickly as he was thinking and sometimes thinking and acting before he had concluded his thoughts! The work was uncovered by GM-C’s wife after his death and caused something of a stir amongst those who had already selectively categorised and packaged the artist as “the chap who cuts holes in buildings”. This work challenges the notion of the grid as organising device, indeed almost celebrates its ambivalence, it usurps the architectural ideal of the grid as a rationalisation of space and presents its irrationality upon its confluence with policy. Pamela Lee discusses this work, with others, in Chapter 2 of Object to be Destroyed. The work was re-investigated in 2003 by the Odd Lots project shown at the Queens Museum of Art and White Colmuns.

Video stills from a 1975 video by Jaime Davidovick with Gordon Matta-Clark shot on site during the project.

freeway amour / motorway love

A recent visit to Seattle, Washington left the author with some serious early morning syndrome as he struggled to adjust to Pacific time. With internet access this time proved invaluable in terms of researching a days activity. A particular fascination with the interstitial space beneath freeways had emerged that week as the US has much more in the way of aerial roads. Trawling the internet for Seattle freeway information brought to light this amazing shot by Matt Finnish on Flickr.

It is part of a set, one of them has the intriguing tag line “offramp with no destination in Seattle’s Montlake area“. This statement brought to mind the ‘stubs’ of junctions planned for Mancunian Way [A635(M)]  Photos here. A googlemaps search and subsequent examination of the satellite images revealed a most surprising piece of public intervention.

The date of available satellite imagery online is always questionable, just look at your own city and try and find buildings that you know have been recently constructed. The idea of making messages large enough to be seen from aircraft is not a new one either. Commercially, just near to Manchester Airport, the offices of the Renold Chain company bore their name from 1954. The building itself was an RIBA award winner by Cruickshank and Seward. There are undoubtedly numerous examples of the same commercial use globally. The idea has even perpetuated grafitti culture, Steve Powers, in his book The Art of Getting Over first brought to the author’s attention the 350 foot long piece by Saber at LAX. The story was further illuminated by Saber himself unpon the publication of Mad Society. This however appeared to be a different event, one of an appreciation of a surface and its visibility without regard for publicity or infamy, apparently an uncontrolled expression of deisre and a sound local knowlegde of available tarmac.

Renold Chain Company offices (1954) seen from above in the 1970s. Image from Cruickshank and Seward archive.

Saber, LA River, visible on approach to LAX. Image from Streetbombing.

A visit to the site was definitely in order to record this strange intervention and to see if time, or the authorities, had eroded the marks to the point they were no longer visible. The weather was typically Mancunian (that fine rain that soaks you through) and the exploration unusually rewarding.

Date stone of incomplete freeway works.

Access ramp with temporary (permanent) concrete barriers in place.

Words; you can make out ‘GINA’

Big heart

The walk back revealed a good piece of adaptation by the local skateboarders who had fashioned a ramp, using minimal material, to the rear of the concrete barrier.

Probably one for the Temporary Services crew.

Upon return an internet search revealed local press had picked up on the act of love and were asking the question ‘Who is Gina?” The comments make for an entertaining read, whilst not reaching a conclusion.

invader – NYC

Don’t need to say much here, as it has all been said. Celebrated urban infiltrator who not only invades, but also maps his moves. Here’s a few we spotted in New York.

The approach that Invader takes to the city is one that calculably measures space and aspect and responds with site specific intervention. The variables that determine scale and form are typical of the illegal artist; visibility (of piece and of artsit when installing), risk (of apprehension or injury), camouflage (contextual blending consistent with city branding), amongst others. Invader explains some of this in a FAQ type interview here.

The map is the only artefact that contains a permanent record of a point in space and time wherein the ‘connection’ between the individual pieces is visualised. Invader is not consistent in the manner of production of these cartographic records; the New York map is a pixelated version of Manhattan with the subway routes shown, Manchester, a Roman and medieval informed morphology, is described in terms of its rivers, major roads and railways. In each case the maps can describe a particular type of marginal or interstitial space in the city, be it an alcove or pediment, corner or capita.

Night ‘vader

Beige ‘vader

Displaced ‘vader?

Slump ‘vader

Low ‘vader

Blue ‘vader

Big ‘vader

Rubiks ‘vader

Negative ‘vader!?

Is this what it takes to remove a ‘vader?

nuclear fallout shelters – NYC

A recent research trip to New York revealed one particular area of city cartography that fascinates the authors and is seemingly without significant historical data with respect their record. The provision of nuclear fallout shelters for the public was a considerable undertaking in the United States during the Cold War era. Any such contingency in the UK was based upon the preservation of the few who would control governmental processes from secure underground bases with significant resources to sustain life for a determinate period.

A excerpt from mywebtimes article

In the fall of 1961, tension was ratcheting up between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviets were putting up the Berlin Wall and flexing their nuclear muscle with a flurry of bomb tests, the radioactive fallout from which was carried around the world by wind. In response to the warming up of the Cold War, the federal government launched the Community Fallout Shelter Program.

Under the program, a survey was done in cities across the country in which appropriate structures were designated as shelters, with the federal government providing food, sanitation, medical and radiological detection supplies. The food was to last two weeks. The shelters were not primarily intended to protect against the explosion of a nuclear bomb itself, but rather against the ensuing radioactivity, which would decrease with time.

Of interest here is the typological mapping of buildings that may subsequently ensue. The existing buildings selected were rarely modified and were chosen for their specific construction type and mass; a mapped record of these sites would presume a post-holocaust society and the new nodal points of this (thankfully non-existant) community. The author also found the same signs on the west coast of the US in a visit to Seattle, Washington.

Excerpt from wikipedia

Effective public shelters can be the middle floors of some tall buildings or parking structures, or below ground level in most buildings with more than 10 floors. The thickness of the upper floors must form an effective shield, and the windows of the sheltered area must not view fallout-covered ground that is closer than 1.5 km (1 mi).

Photographs from New York