Colour on grey...

Having eaten up all the summer, and worn away any energy reserves and pockets of patience that I had, the flat-move finally came and went. After a myriad of frustrating moments and the exasperating events and non-events that animated the whole experience, and still continue to do, albeit to a lesser degree, things are finally settling down as the grey walls of Routine take over.

Grrrrr..... Grey.

Part of routine involves the weekly shopping trip... To reach the supermarkets, I now have to go past dingy zones that have been reclaimed from urban wasteland, but still seem to remain largely inhospitable, uninspiring and uninviting to nature and man alike, just as they did twenty years ago, when I first encountered them. Or so it would seem on first glance. This concrete/corrugated stretch of land seems to be summed up by the scrawl above, with the same old initials (IGS etc) that are to be found ALL over this town, on every imaginable surface - even the façade of our old house! To avoid looking at this ugliness I generally keep my head down, dodge the traffic and trudge over the equally lacklustre expanses of tarmac. Fortunately, as invariably happens, grey makes colour seem all the more radiant...

Yesterday evening, with fewer parked cars to obscure the walls behind, I happened to look up and was hit by the explosion of colour on the dull concrete.

 Racing back to get my camera and son (acting as bodyguard since this isn't the safest place to be) I managed to take some photos.

I have no idea how long it takes to carry out this urban art, or even how the 'graffeurs' set about their work, beyond the use of spray-can paint, of course.

I often see other (lesser) graffeurs along the canal-side cycle lanes, busy with their cans but their art is generally far inferior in quality to these.

Needless to say, I don't understand (or even try to understand) the references in this art, I just admire the visual effect and the obvious talent of the artists.

The intricate swirls and forms are a little like Gothic illuminated script and as for the colours...

These are eye-burningly bright and beautiful -  the tiresome, tedious 'taggeurs' from around town really could learn something, instead of marking territory with their visual irritations.

In the photo above, I liked the irony of the façadier's van parked in front of this very alternative approach to façades...

It seems a pity that this art can't be used 'officially', to decorate public areas - it seems to be wasted, hidden away in such wasteland...

Though maybe from the graffeurs' point of view, this would defeat the object; I really don't know.

Below each piece, you can see traces of former work. I wish I'd seen these too. The image of dripping paint is even taken up within the art itself...

The one above looks as if it's pushing out another work or is being pushed...

Meanwhile, even the trees end up decorated too, in one way or another and the vegatation flourishes all around this terrain vague.

Aspects of the lettering below reminded me of Art Deco work...

The following face certainly looked familiar too.

All in all, however, none of this reminded me of its sister-art from the town centre, apart from the obvious drive towards creativity and expression. This I followed when we were living in the heart of the town - Made in Reims - Paste on, peel off graffiti art...
New quartier, new art, I'm just glad it's there...