805 steps: November 2015

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Demolition

I made this drawing at the end of May 2015

I strolled down to the Hertford Union canal this lunchtime on my way to Fish Island Labs. It's the first time I've visited the canal since September when I collected what was left of my 805 steps exhibition.

When I made the drawing above there was an enormous warehouse/factory building behind the blue 1980s style fence. I can remember at the time wondering what kind of industry went on this building. Presumably there was a lot of nothing going on in there because this was the view I saw today just six months later.

Drawing the canal, 2015

During the spring and summer of 2015 I made a series of black and white sketches along the Hertford Union Canal from Wick Lane to White Post Lane. This area of Hackney Wick is undergoing rapid development and the existing industry that occupies the area is being replaced with blocks of flats and I wanted to make a visual record of the towpath before that happens.

I responded to anything that took my fancy and in the autumn I exhibited eight of the sketches (chosen from a total of 21), reproduced as small posters, on the doors of a building owned by the National Grid. I was keen to exhibit some of this series of drawings in the same setting that they had drawn in for the benefit of the people who use the towpath.