Southbank Studies

At this point in time I relocated to the Southbank to make my studies. Unbeknownst to m, the Christmas festival was under construction at the time. At one point my subject became obscured as a large tent was erected in front of me. Instead of moving to try and regain site of my previous subject, I instead experimented with the coloured inks and found that I could overlay the new formation atop the previous studies without sacrificing the clarity of either.

Using this effect, I tried to communicate the motion of individuals from one state too another using a sequence of partially overlapping images, inspired the repetitious dynamic shapes of Futurist artworks, gradually shifting from one hue to another over the course of the sequence. However, the haste required to accomplish these quick studies often left the forms of the individual sequences rather static and uninterested when considered outside of the overall sequence.

Balla 'Girl Running on the Balcony' 1912

In light of this, I began to focus on the more gradual transformation of the surroundings in preparation for the Christmas festival. In conjunction to the formation of these new structures, there was a clear change upon the announcement of Nelson Mandela’s death; a swell of flowers around his Southbank monument that then slowly whittled away again over time.