The Art of Wildness in Urban Decay

"Deer Stag" in flaky paint on old rusty metal

Age weathers us. It takes our smooth, clean design and scratches it, rubs it, tugs at it. Wrinkles come and wrinkles stay. Scars as memories of things perhaps we shouldn't have tried. But in doing so it lends us character. Stories written in our skin and movements. Being weathered means we lived.

And that is how it goes for our stuff as well. Not the breakages that lead to trash bins but the battered old teddy-bear that nobody would buy yet has such value, and those comfortable aged clothes that fit just right. Even the battered books are a tone better than new.

Beyond that lies the stuff of society that has its own brush of weathering. Our structures, our signs, our walls, our benches are blasted by wind and rain and sun and bums. Sometimes to the point where I wonder if it was deliberate. Exquisite little patterns that appear out of nowhere. So why don't we appreciate it?

Perhaps due to the lack of personal attachment. But also the belief that new, clean and tidy is a better state.

There's life in that wall of flaking paint. An intricate landscape with depth and skies. That rusty old metal skeleton of something that once had use bears the colours of autumn and the glow of sunshine. The grime and grit around it makes it hard to see these worlds. Our expectations of a controlled environment turn our heads the other way. Then the bustle in our ears and minds makes it even harder to see what else dwells within those worlds of weathering.

There is a wildness.

"Meerkat Lookout" in more flaky paint on old rusty metal

"Leopard Realm" in the multiple layers of disintegrating paint on a very old car

"Fantasy Moose" in an abstract land of graffiti painted over graffiti painted over graffiti

"Leaping Salmon" in the paint flaking off an old wall

"Shark Depths" in the wrinkled waves of a water-damaged table-top

"Charging Bull" in the chaos of disintegrating layers of paintwork

"Frog and Spawn" in the smeary paint of an old metal oil storage tank

"Bison Wood" in the sloppy, drippy, splashy white-wash on a wall

"Butterfly Grunge" in the weathered paintwork of an old wall

"Moose Walk" in the streaky paintwork on the back of a road-sign

"Mangrove Snake" in more streaky paintwork on the back of a different road-sign

All images created by me from macro photographs of weathered urban surfaces.