Drip, Drip, Drip...

by Fin Macrae, 26 Jan 2009

It is scary how quickly time moves on, and technically we are now in our 3rd year of the Streetscaping project (having had initial discussions about the project way back in 2006…). It might seem that we haven’t been up to much over the last 5 months since we last blogged (sorry!!). But, as the blog title suggests, this project was always going to take time. And we can assure you that DUFI has been incredibly busy!

The actual physical work is now well underway in Baron Taylor Street (BTS) and we have been delighted with the installation so far. The stone and ironworks are blending seamlessly into the street and Stewart, Stevie and the boys from Rok are doing a great job of installing the artwork as they progress down the North end of BTS.

The nature of our work as graffiti artists tends to be about utilising pre-existing surfaces and the cosmetic changes you make to that surface. Sometimes that is done simply to catch peoples attention with slogans, images and tags. However in some cases – such as this – we are afforded more time to think about the usage of space, and how people will interact with it (one of the joys of public art!).

Right from the beginning of our brainstorming sessions DUFI felt that it was important to keep the individual character of BTS as much as possible, and we wanted the journey down the street to be a self contained experience within the wider Streetscaping project. It will be interesting when the street has been completed (sometime in March 2009) to see how other people relate to this.

I think the major difference between this and our Street-texts aspect of the larger Streetscape was that we wanted a more instant reaction from the public. The other street-texts are scattered throughout the Old Town and are more likely to be discovered randomly. However, if you walk on BTS you are more likely to walk at least half if not the full length of the street. We therefore wanted to create the artwork as a whole, in some ways more obvious than our other stones. Something that gives the street an independent sense of place but still obviously connected to the street-texts by our use of similar themes and visual aesthetics.

On BTS we have deliberately avoided using our ‘subtexts’ that we used elsewhere, so that these are not physically layered artworks. The words and statements we have used are more emotive and not as obtuse or headscratchingly bizarre as our other texts (a cow falling through a flat for example…see the next blog entry for that one!).

Through our work with the kids at Cauldeen Primary we came up with five word pairs that beautifully capture the ideas of watery weather – words that can maybe help to conjure up childhood (or certainly childlike!) memories. These word pairs are being installed with a single word on either side of each of the drains on BTS. Go on, close your eyes and see what images these word pairs bring to life…

FOG LIGHTS

SLIDEY ICE

SUN SHOWER

SNOW ANGEL

HAIL STORM

RAIN COAT.

As you know we also have designed the bespoke drain covers (see blog on 26th June for more on that…) which incorporated the quote “”There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather” by the great critic/writer and artist John Ruskin. He once beautifully described Inverness as being “Placed by the shore of one of the loveliest estuaries in the world; placed between the crests of the Grampians and the flowing of the Moray Firth, as if it were a jewel clasping the folds of the mountains to the blue zone of the sea”.

We had to use something from a man who obviously knew a good thing when he saw it!

to view images click here!