SITE VISIT
In my search for materials, I have recently been given permission to access a building whose decrepit state attests to its liberation from utility. Awaiting demolition, in the coming months I will be investigating this transitional environment- a modern ruin. My practice stems from a heightened awareness of the city as I’m interested in the forgotten buildings and undefined spaces that reflect on the evolution of the Urbis itself and the elements that comprise it. Therefore, to access this empty home in my hometown of Warrington is a very exciting development within my work.
Upon entering the site, I found myself operating as a kind of archaeologist of the present. Conducting field research on site, I carefully documented my investigations through photography and video. I decided to spend the first two days attempting to understand the space thoroughly. On the third day I began to use my tools to excavate, to deconstruct the very fabric of this building in order to uncover, to reveal the bare materials in which this building is made. This slowly revealed the built space in its raw form, a product of an exhaustive separation/ extraction process. Through this physical labouring, I began to notice my own dialogue between practical activity, site and material and how I engage and operate in space with materiality.
During this process of investigating this site, I have realised that removing is my way of learning more about the place. Connecting the space to the building, to the materials, the past and the urban structure.
In a way comparable to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark and Robert Smithson, my own enquiries consist of an investigation-oriented practice that provides the possibility or opportunity for a place and its past to become manifest.
Site Documentation
