Annabelle Shelton
Artist Statement
‘Pools of Activity’ is a title given to an ongoing series of drawings on sprayed white aluminium and prints on aluminium. The work is a social or geographical investigation of the psychodynamics of space in relation to people in place. The series are presented as constellations of figures against a white surface. All traces of skies, architecture, street planning and infrastructure are removed. By eliminating the backgrounds, densities, lines, semi circles and angles, clusters of people are revealed.
My themes by example explore the pedestrian passing high streets, city centres, monuments, train stations, tourist hotspots and cathedrals. The dynamics of city space is always evolving and conditions of space are constantly in the process of change conditioned by rights of way, thoroughfares, changing lights, pedestrian crossings, public art, food stands and bollards.
My research starts out on the streets as a photographer looking for constellations of people in place. I am a flanuerie looking for activity but not by reference to the 18th century equivalent. The act of being a photographer out on the streets is auspicious to my work but also equivocal in the sense of what it means to be out on the street photographing scenes post 9/11.
Once documented I translate the work into prints and drawings. The subtlety of ‘Time’ plays a part in my work – the streets are busier at peak times with flurries of people revealing more about the place. The intersections of infrastructure managed by changing lights at crossings, the urgency to get to and from work by transport systems., lunch-time queues at cash points and food places all eject interesting constellations of the contemporary society to work within my investigations for ‘Pools of Activity’.
My themes by example explore the pedestrian passing high streets, city centres, monuments, train stations, tourist hotspots and cathedrals. The dynamics of city space is always evolving and conditions of space are constantly in the process of change conditioned by rights of way, thoroughfares, changing lights, pedestrian crossings, public art, food stands and bollards.
My research starts out on the streets as a photographer looking for constellations of people in place. I am a flanuerie looking for activity but not by reference to the 18th century equivalent. The act of being a photographer out on the streets is auspicious to my work but also equivocal in the sense of what it means to be out on the street photographing scenes post 9/11.
Once documented I translate the work into prints and drawings. The subtlety of ‘Time’ plays a part in my work – the streets are busier at peak times with flurries of people revealing more about the place. The intersections of infrastructure managed by changing lights at crossings, the urgency to get to and from work by transport systems., lunch-time queues at cash points and food places all eject interesting constellations of the contemporary society to work within my investigations for ‘Pools of Activity’.