project description
Swallowed, 2002
For a long time this building intrigued me. I kept returning to this place, to capture its mysterious austerity. These two, almost abstract images were taken moments after each other, in the late afternoon. The street behind curiously has no name; a back alley, next to a river, where children and other furtive characters come for dubious privacy. The immediate environs are shabby, littered. The only indication of its purpose, a sign indicating River 132 KV substation. Perhaps built during the 70’s, its patterned exterior has a retro feel to it, old and new at the same time, icon of an age. The interior remains stubbornly impenetrable. I heard that some kids had tried to climb its walls, and had fallen. Ironically, a barbed wire fence was installed against the wall, to protect them from hurting themselves.
Nonetheless, despite barbed fence and wall, barriers to the inside, the imagination knows no boundaries, often fuelled by the lure of things forbidden. Perhaps, through this image, the wall shares something of its secrets with us. It goes without saying.
