On site today involved a discussion with staff about the brick building that appears boarded up. It’s currently used as storage but apparently was the recycling centre when the site was next to the municipal tip. The site manager found me this aerial view photo on Brighouse from 1978 and circled in the site.
The rip was accidental – pulling it out of the decaying frame. This is resonant of my current ripped works on paper and is approximately where the train station is – a beautifully incidental parallel as my other main project Dwell Time is situated on board trains and at stations.
I like to find out about the odd or surprising items – the anomalies – to compare with what I find interesting. They once had a dead cat (and perhaps more they didn’t find). With death comes loss and absence and inevitable getting rid of related items like pet beds.
I find the bins in skips really interesting. Some are recovered to sell in the charity shop (including a galvanised steel one like I used in a sculpture and a plastic grey one like the one I use for Museum of Contemporary Rubbish donations) and some are sorted into scrap metal or general waste. It seems like a visual echo or paradox.
Another echo is the kettle like mine at home combined with the memory of cutting a mustard yellow kettle out of a magazine yesterday because it was the same yellow as the colour matched paint. Time for a brew and reflection. The kettle went into electrical because they don’t have the facilities to test if these items are working to resell/reuse.
Someone dropped off these items (which will go into the charity shop) as they’ve just redecorated their house. They’ve downsized and decluttered. Their new colour scheme is purple and silver so these red pictures don’t go. Someone else might buy them. The rug was given by a friend as an intermediate rug whilst they found one for a permanent fixture.
Another car load was some helpful neighbours getting rid of their neighbour’s hoard after a significant declutter. A dusty light fitting, an empty frame, a patterned rug that fell into composition.
