Tales from a Changing City
Danny Hill and Darren Washington
The opening of the current show at the AirSpace Gallery saw many familiar faces; it’s great to see so many people supporting local artists.
The artwork is a collection of photographs showing the all too familiar scenes of derelict buildings and building sites across the city. Many of the photographs on show are accompanied by a passage of text, highlighting parts of the city and giving a taster of the people within it. The passages vary from discussions of next door neighbours to local barbers, colourful and fun, yet with a harsh reality emphasised by the use of the familiar Stoke on Trent dialect. For me the dialect is hard to take in, I find that reading it out loud helps to confirm a few sentences.
The images themselves have an eerie quality, bulldozers lurking down small back passages and empty shops; one series is taken at different angles giving you the feeling that the photographer has taken the images as he flees from something else.
The images have enhanced shadows and highlights, clarifying the image, almost making them a window into a fantasy world; as if you could reach your hand in a pick up the brick in the image.
