INTO THE WOODS

Putting my Plan B into action, I dragged my family and my letters into the woods in a festival wagon. I found many different spots to place my signs to take pictures. I took over 150 photographs, but these 3 in particular were poignant to me.

This image, showing my letters from the back (image has been edited to flip) the colour is hidden and the shell of the inside is visible. The words stand there, totally alone. There is darkness but also multiple beams of light. The letters stand front of a tunnel created by nature. To me this is symbolic of 'the light is at the end of the tunnel' - better times are ahead. To me, this image perfectly represents the context of my piece. The duality of good times and bad, the metaphorical and literal sense of light and shade.

This image shows the fabricated letters spelling FORSAKE, on top of a pile of old rotting branches. The duality of nature in all it's glory, paired with the garish and bold letters makes for an intriguing image. I would have liked to leave them there, and capture reactions from the public. What would they think?

Would this be seen as a sort of guerilla graffiti installation?

I particularly love this image. Having visited the woods on a beautifully sunny day, the thousands of diamantes were glittering in the sunlight. The image has vulgarity and beauty, another duality. The sun created a shadow in front of us, amplifying the profanity. The word looks out of place in such a natural setting.

DISAPPOINTMENT

Once my final piece was finished, it was time to take it to my chosen abandoned site, Condor services.

Following on from the anonymous Facebook post, I discovered that the building is privately owned. It has been abandoned in a sense that it's been deserted, but the owner lives in the house next door.

The building is behind metal railings and has cones in front and is only accessible via the house.

Many people suggested simply knocking on and asking for permission. Though many people had advised me to not ask for permission, I decided to show respect and courtesy to the elderly gentleman.

This, however, made me extremely anxious. My partner, who has his own graffiti past and isn't a stranger to trespass, is fearless. He knocked on the house whilst I watched from the car across the road. Ten minutes later he came back to me, explaining that it was an elderly lady who had answered the door. She was the wife of the gentleman that owned the site, and mentioned that he had passed away 2 years ago. She was grateful that we asked, as she has to chase away at least a person a week.

Unfortunately, her answer was no,

we could not take photographs outside the building.

Her intention is to demolish the building and sell the land, and her worry was that if we took pictures and published them online that a conservation order would be placed on the building. I am aware that this wouldn't likely happen, but still have to respect her wishes. I certainly don't want to frighten or upsrt an old lady living alone. I decided to accept the decision and find somewhere else to photograph my work.

MY HOLLYWOOD

Someone mentioned to me that my sign looked like the Hollywood sign. This was actually unintentional, but it does have similarities, in particular the varsity style font. There are no curves in the Hollywood sign, only straight lines.

My forsake sign, amongst a huge pile of rubble and mud in my currently under-construction garden.

It's my own working class little Nottingham Hollywood sign.