ENAMEL ENMESHED ARCADIA
WRITTEN BY BORBONESA / 2002
WRITTEN BY BORBONESA / 2002
An event that took place in the winter steered the mind-set of certain inhabitants to reassess how they looked upon the world. An ‘anonymous group’ entered into a new territory of lawlessness by coordinating several Artistic Embellishments in no less than 40 public spaces across the length and breadth of the British Isles.
One of these inexplicable projects harnessed the rebellious nature often originated in the minds of British working-class teenagers. Drawing the willing but naive youths from a variety of cities throughout England, a total of thirty disciples were assembled at the base of the towns only clock tower armed with pots of coloured enamel paint. At exactly five minutes past the hour of three that very morning the group simultaneously punctured the base of each paint tin allowing an even flow of paint to seep out. The cracked pink and grey pavements behind them were coated in the smatterings of glossy pigment as they ambled along a set of predetermined routes feigning nonchalance. The next morning the damage was clearly visible, even from the air. Thirty separate trails of coloured enamel paint snaked from the towns’ central clock tower outward engulfing the winding causeways of an entire city. A set of multi-coloured tendrils created by a herd of ‘disaffected youth’. The aerial shots shown repeatedly on all local news bulletins exposed the colourful network of glossy enamel veins to a wider audience. The footage was horrifyingly beautiful. |
Three days later posters were put up throughout the city displaying the blurred footage of the individuals captured on CCTV that morning. They too were vandalised. Every poster was modified from ‘Help us catch these vandals’ to ‘Hey, come and see the ArtZoot Spectacle now, on show for up to indefinance’. Councillors were ‘officially’ enflamed. The police were offended. The paint streaks now had their own promotional material mocking the seriousness of the entire incident, and marking the result as a spectacle that demanded to be seen. Fantastic.
A handful of residents who considered themselves committed to preserving the sterility of the modern urban environment congregated in the town hall to silently exchange stern glances, or mutter sympathetically amongst themselves. Others, who at times devoted small portions of their mind to conjuring images of alternative municipal aesthetics, grinned behind cupped hands. Officially the actions were ‘condemned’. Regular meetings between residents and council officials endeavoured to uphold agreement as to the ‘motive’ behind this ‘direct stand’ against the potent formalism of modern civilisation. A collective Township awareness became tired with concentrated empathetic frowning, but continued the struggle to rationalise why their living areas had been modified ‘without prior consent’. Misguided reactions blundered into the pages of reports, but the publicity that enveloped these incidents petered out after four weeks. No one was actually ever held directly responsible for choreographing the ‘discolouration of public property’, faint traces of which may still be seen on the outskirts of the town today. |