dogma

well my first attempt at following the dogma of photo the start of off roading and then photo the find or place, is here. i wanted to go to mr straws house but it was shut, so what i found was this faty matty graffiti. I initally having known nothing of the house and not wanting to look it up before hand was hoping to find a house of straw, or a house where everything was made of straw, but instead what it is timewarp. In an attempt to find the house i had to ask directions and asked a man in the middle of worksop, who was happy to talk of mr straw and his story. I was in worksop for a meeting and told fellow meeters of our of the beaten track mission and so they wanted to join me. It seems that this may be turning into an community engagement project. I was keen to enter a time warp, like an alice in wonderland moment of heading off the track and finding something magical, like your 7ft juggler. I like the romance of this digressing, that we hope for or perhaps expect something unusual by moving off our route. Well what we found, my band of merry digressors and I was the 'faty matty' graffiti. It such a kind poetic slur, and I like its link to mr straws name - matty is a faty and mr straw is ...well, im hoping he is made of straw.
I like also how the graffiti subverts the national trusts timewarp romance, bringing us back to the reality of now. So faty matty keeps me in the present and reminds me to not get caught up in the meaning of something, but to focus on the actuality - its a house, in worksop.



Which leads on to my second attempt to go off the beaten track, i diverted from my route back from wirksworth. I turned off to Southwell, home of the catherdral. It was the cathedral that was the start of my idea, i have seen it on antiques roadshow and have always wanted to visit. So my first pic is the cathedral, linked to seeing the sign and then thinking of antiques roadshow. My second photo is of the graffiti i saw as i drove into the town. I love how in being rightous about one thing it upsets another. The graffitti spoils the persons desired pristineness. I like how it links to the cathedrals underlying desires.
In following my new dogma of speaking to people whilst off roading, i asked a woman in the cathedral about the site where the graffiti was and what she thought about it and she said she didint know, but she would look. I like how the engagement with people makes me and perhaps them think and see differently. I like my new addition to the dogma.

My last photo is a window inthe catherdral, its made from small broken pieces of glass collected from the site when they rebuilt/refurbed the catherdral after the civil war. Its like a patch work quilt, its an improvised thing. When i asked another lady about it she said something i really liked, something like - the glass became treasure again. Which linked really well the the gordon matta clarks - fake estate work i was talking to you about - the slivers of land that he bought in new york. But also made me think differently about the pieces of broken china i find and keep and what all this says about place. So i have started reading about place again and also more of gordon matta clark. He did a piece for the centre of architecture and urban studies, where he shot all the windows out with a rifle - nice.