Noticing More: Trailer Trashed

“I always see the absurdity in most situations. It's my experience of how life works.”

Natasha Lyonne

We used to live in one of London’s dumping grounds.

Before the Olympics of 2012. Before Hackney Wick found itself with a shiny new Overground station and a burgeoning population of residents to snatch up the fancy new waterside abodes, not many people lived in Fish Island. It was a community of live/work art spaces. Drafty, crumbling, time weathered, cavernous places originally intended for industrial use. Not especially quaint, the streets were makeshift galleries for street and guerrilla artists. Often strewn with litter and post-semi legal rave residue, the pavements were often lined with discarded N2O cartridges. Taking up the most space amongst the random “rubbish”, trailers (among other vehicles), were a common sight.

I took pics of quite a few during our time in the area. Here are some of my favourites:

I wonder what makes certain areas more prone to fly-tipping than others? From what I observed, it’s usually an area with fewer residents and less security monitoring. An area that seems on the fringes of somehow. Places where less people will complain or make an issue of it. It’s interesting that despite the usual deterrents, (fine warnings and clamping) this still happened in the area. Can’t say that it ever bothered us. I suppose we just accepted it as part of the personality of the area. We never really understood why local authorities bothered to clamp them or stick fines on them.

Noticing More: The Curious Appeal of Abandoned Doors

Dumped doors. Abandoned and propped up against a wall. Clearly leading no where, yet they never fail to capture our imagination.

It’s difficult to walk by one without a quick glance behind it, just to satisfy the niggling “what if” at the back of our minds.

All of these decommissioned doors were noticed in London. In the Eastend, to be more exact. I’m not if there is something in that snippet of info. I wonder if we will ever come across any abandoned doors here in Japan. I wonder….

Noticing More: Rubbish Telly

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life”

Oscar Wilde

Some one dumped this telly by block of flats near where we used to live in London.

Of course, I couldn’t walk on by without taking a quick pic. A few days later and unbeknown to me, Hiro walked past the same telly and took a couple of pictures, too. It was interesting to see what became of the telly.

Part of me is sad that an object that is clearly minding its own business can be subjected to such treatment. Part of me accepts that, that is what happens to anything that is discarded and abandoned on the street side. And there is also a part of me that could imagine the smashed up telly in a gallery somewhere.

“Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.”

― Woody Allen