WALLS THAT CRY, WALLS THAT SMILE
I love to read the different languages that surfaces are able to talk. Streets, roads, pavements, places, walls, - all sealed areas in our civilized world they speak, they breathe or are scaring silent if not dead.
Since 6 years I am traveling to Bahrain. Every time I walk through downtown Manama to observe the changes on the walls since the riots in 2011. The layers of colors express the controversies and tension between the Shiate community and the ruling class of the Sunni.
Streets and their surfaces contribute a lot to the touch and feel of a specific environment. I prefer a lively not so perfect cover to that of a plain and flawless.
Vivid wall with an overflow of obvious messages contrasted by the decent undercurrent flow of signs understandable only for the insider, for the knowledgable. What makes walls so exciting are th layers and the sort of colliding messages over the course of time that tell us so much without noisiness.
The video clip you can see here I shot Downtown Manama in Bahrain 2019. It shows the traces of the rioting in 2011 and the layers covering them since then contrasted by the colorful language of belief.
We all are familiar with graffiti, and how these paintings change the aura of an environment. From art to criminal violation stretches our attitude towards them. Their makers range from artists to protesters, an amazing split between legality and illegality. Graffiti paintings are an intentional act as are the many announcements and advertisements on walls all around the world almost regardless of the economical status of an area.
And then there are those signs on surfaces which express socio-political history. These sketches are especially interesting as they talk in layers that are created by the course of time, be it in joy or suffering, they are announcement and its deletion at the same time, an exciting tension field of voices.
My heart in tears... Was this the feeling the creator of this graffiti had in mind or is it a slip of the tongue respectively of the brush in his hand?
The third perspective I see walking the world are those perfectly sealed surfaces. They are silent, they don’t talk to me except the language of boredom. The exceptions are some design objects. But I think here we always have to draw the thin line between the thrilling simplicity of an aesthetic space and pure lack of ideas and creativity.
I spare myself to upload such an image of boredom.
Within milliseconds our mood changes when seeing a surface like this. Thanks to the creative human hand and mind giving us a smile of wellbeing.
Asphalt flower emerging from the forces of physics, unpredictable the outcome for our brain and anticipation abilities.