Re-Imagining the Margins: the Art of the Urban Fringe
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Re-imagining the margins: the art of the urban fringe Rupert Griffiths Ph.D in Human Geography Department of Geography, Royal Hololoway, University of London 1 Declaration of Authorship Rupert Griffiths I hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract Rupert Griffiths Re-Imagining the margins: the art of the urban fringe Urban margins have long formed sites of artistic intervention and imagination. This thesis develops three artist case studies to explore how contemporary visual artists are re-imagining these fringe landscapes, attending in particular to the gaps, interstices, wastelands and incidental spaces of the city that elude easy categorisation. Methodologically, my thesis brings together resources from geography and art theory, with my own artistic practice to investigate the imaginaries of two artists, and to create and critically reflect on the imaginaries of subject and landscape that inform my own practice as an artist, here through photography and film. The theoretical lens through which these geographical imaginaries are analysed is formed from the key coordinates of contemporary landscape theory; namely questions of materiality, practice, mobility and embodiment. I argue that such perspectives offer new material through which to reflect on urban margins as zones of ambiguity, and of distinctions and indistinctions between the creative-subject and the landscape. The first case study I explore, examines my own photography and film-making practices, discussed as an uncanny landscape imaginary. I then turn to the work of Michael Landy to explore imaginaries of contamination. The final chapter explores the organismic landscapes of Stephen Gill. In each case I focus as much on the practices of the works’ production as I do on the finished works, attending to questions of materiality, the embodied experiences of the landscape that these works are based on and the tools and equipment used in the production process. The thesis concludes with three sets of reflections; i) on the re-imagination of the urban margins that exploring these artists’ work through landscape theory has enabled; ii) on the benefits of artistic practice for thinking through the ambiguous characteristics of these territories; iii) on the value of creative artistic practice as a geographical research method. 3 Contents Chapter 1 Re-imagining the margins: the art of the urban fringe 9 Chapter 2 Surveying the margins 21 Chapter 3 Methodologies - interpreting practice 70 Chapter 4 Uncanny Landscapes 94 Chapter 5 Contaminated Landscapes 140 Chapter 6 Organismic Landscapes 183 Chapter 7 Conclusions - reimagining the urban margins 230 Bibliography 249 4 Table of Figures Figure 1: Chris Dorley-Brown, Kingsland railway bridge Dalston, 51 looking north to Dalston junction from Englefield road, Hackney (left 1997, right 2001) Figure 2: Chris Dorley-Brown, Pudding Mill Lane 1998-2003, 51 now in Olympic zone (left 1998, right 2003) Figure 3: David George, Enclosures, Badlands and Borders, 2013 52 Figure 4: Laura Oldfield Ford, 2013 Drifting Through the Ruins, 54 2009 Figure 5: Jim Woodall, Olympic State, 2010 56 Figure 6: Stephen Cornford, Trespassing the Olympic Site, 2006- 58 2008 Figure 7: David George, Dissolution Series, 2012 59 Figure 8: Hilary Powell, The Games, 2007 62 Figure 9: EAT Collective, Ju-Byung Lee, Synthetic Ecology in the 64 East End of London, 2010 Figure 10: MUF Architecture, Feral Arcadia, 2008 67 Figure 11: Indication of the routes taken through East London 97 Figure 12: Limmo and Leamouth Peninsula 103 Figure 13: Creekmouth 118 Figure 14: Annual Wall Rocket, 2002 142 Figure 15: Creeping Buttercup, 2002 143 Figure 16: Polypodium Phegopteris, pressed nature print, Ferns 146 of Great Britain and Ireland, 1855 Figure 17: Breakdown, 2001 150 Figure 18: Semi-detached and Landy’s parents, 2004 150 Figure 19: Weed Bombing on NW 5th Street Miami 158 Figure 20: Nourishment exhibition flyer, 2002 160 Figure 21: Albrecht Dürer, Das große Rasenstück, 1503 165 Figure 22: Claudication, 2004 170 5 Figure 23: Fever Few (detail), 2002 170 Figure 24: Landy’s father’s sheepskin coat before destruction 173 Figure 25: From the photobook Talking to Ants, 2014 185 Figure 26: From the photobook Hackney Flowers, 2007 186 Figure 27: From the photobook Talking to Ants, 2014 186 Figure 28: From the photobook Hackney Flowers, 2007 186 Figure 29: Buried, 2006 192 Figure 30: Buried, 2006 193 Figure 31: Buried, 2006 196 Figure 32: Buried, 2006 199 Figure 33: From the photobook Hackney Flowers, 2007 204 Figure 34: Examples of individually hand finished books, 2007 210 Figure 35: A Book of Field Studies, 2004 212 Figure 36: Insets in photobook Hackney Flowers, 2007 213 Figure 37: From photobook Hackney Flowers, 2007 216 Figure 38: From photobook Hackney Flowers, 2007 218 Figure 39: From photobook Hackney Flowers, 2007 220 Figure 40: Photograph developed in energy drink, from 222 photobook Best Before End, 2014 Figure 41: The Kestrel, A Book of Birds, , 2010 226 Figure 42: Radiohead - Paranoid Android, A Book of Field Studies, 226 2004 Figure 43: Untitled, Warming Down, 2008 226 6 Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank Professor Tim Cresswell and Dr Harriet Hawkins for their guidance, support and enthusiasm for my work throughout the Ph.D. Tim was my supervisor for almost three years, until he left to take up a post in the U.S. at which point Harriet took over. Tim’s initial interest in my academic and creative trajectory through art and architecture gave me the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D at the Royal Holloway. I would also like to thank Tim for his help in securing AHRC funding, without which I would have been unable to start out on this journey. Harriet’s input has been invaluable, bringing a different perspective and different challenges to my work as I started pulling everything together into a coherent whole. I want to thank her especially for the time and energy she has given me during the final stages of the Ph.D. I would also like to thank the Department of Geography at the Royal Holloway, and the many wonderful people I have met during my time there. The bi-weekly Landscape Surgery was a regular opportunity to hear about the research of other members of the department and others from other institutions. Equally my involvement with Passenger Films was an enjoyable one both socially and academically, as was the elective Landscape Surgery that Mia Hunt and I ran together from time to time. I would also like to thank my advisors Dr Alex Loftus and Professor Pete Adey for their time and encouragement. Also, I would like to thank the department for giving me the opportunity to develop my teaching skills, and to travel to the U.S. to take students on fieldwork in New York and to present at the AAG conference in L.A. I would like to say a special thank you to my friends and colleagues Dr Harriet Hawkins, Dr Oli Mould, Dr Innes Keighren and Jo Cagney who made the trip a wonderful experience. I would like to say a special thank you to my close friends and colleagues Clarisse Liu, James Thurgill, Even Smith Wergeland and Andre Novoa for their warmth, friendship and support over the past four years. They helped make my time at RHUL a memorable one, filled with new perspectives on the world and much laughter too. James and I collaborated on Uncanny Landscapes, a week long series of conference papers, workshops, and an exhibition, and which I hope we will develop further in the future. I am looking forward to a continued exploration of the rich seams between geography, art and architecture and beyond and am looking forward to exploring new creative and academic territories with fellow artist, architect, academic and collaborator, Lia Wei. I would also like to thank Kevin Logan for sharing his knowledge of East London’s fringe landscapes, which was invaluable when I was developing the project. I also must express my thanks to my good friend and house mate Jon Wood, who has kept me sane throughout the process, and given me invaluable input and support throughout. Finally, I’d like to thank my mother, Mary Keenan, for her continued encouragement and support, for her creative input and discussions and for being there when things have been difficult. 7 8 Chapter 1 Re-imagining the margins: the art of the urban fringe 9 Chapter 1: Re-imagining the margins: the art of the urban fringe Introduction Urban margins are increasingly inhabited terrains, the subject of myriad creative practices and imaginaries. These spaces are also the subject of much theorising referred to as terrain vague (de Solà-Morales, 1995), drosscape (Lerup, 1994), friche, edgeland or wasteland (Gandy, 2013). These are regions of the city that are perhaps disused or incidental, the awkward plots around or between infrastructure, or abandoned infrastructures themselves reclaimed by a succession of weeds and trees. This thesis asks how these ambiguous urban areas are approached by artists, and how they understand and re-imagine them through creative practice. In particular I will be looking at the ways in which artists and urban margin become entwined in the processes of their creative practices and movements through these landscapes. Central to my interests is the urban margin as a site of ambiguity. The key ambiguity that shapes my discussion is that between the artist-subject and the marginal urban landscape. The urban margins are discussed as regions where distinctions between the two are made or become uncertain. The phrases urban margin or marginal urban landscape also bring with them similarly ambiguous boundaries between ideas of nature and culture, the built environment and nature, the ordered city and the abandoned city, the rural and the urban.