'Work In Progress' Exhibition

This work looks at locations that contain social, historical or political significance. In this case Lime Grove formerly Hammersmith Art & Design College, Shepherds Bush, West London. In cataloguing these spaces the work becomes a historical document not just of the buildings themselves, but of the College and the other institutions that have occupied these spaces before it.

Most of my photographic work is based on the industrial, urban environment, where I capture abandoned buildings in a state of neglect, revealing a passage of time. Some buildings become even more beautiful by ageing, collapsing or opening up. I look for details of the mundane world, of the ‘subconscious creativity’ and of functional necessity (e.g. replacement of a piece of wall, hand installed electrical meter, painted-over signs or areas of wall). Created for functional purposes in an improvised way, these details often remind me of a painting, projection, installation or a sculpture. So, in a way, my ‘details’ are records of unacknowledged pieces of artwork.

To find value in the disused or vacant undermines the aesthetic hierarchies and priorities of the mainstream. Places, things or spaces that are derelict have been made so through deliberate and often harsh actions. Exploring this involves an investigation into the values, aesthetics, and political economy of a society that forges the neglected.

Each photograph provokes the viewer to imagine how the built landscape and objects were once used and how that use changes over time.