So, after my last post on the prep I did ahead of the review last week, here is the final pack that I presented to my peers and course leadership. Slide one shows the title and the relevant details. There is another post here that details all the notes I made on my peers presentations.
The second slide does not change much from the previous review with the explanation of the goal of the project.
Slide 3 is a list of things that have developed as the project has progressed. How I started with exterior photos and going through different art techniques to create work from the photos and the building. Also as part of the assignment it was asked for us to include the themes that we were seeing and using throughout the project. I’ve experimented with a few different methods and through each of them a theme has emerged,such as the block printing off the walls of the building showing the decay, squares, architecture etc.. The development includes some notes on the Shrewsbury Civic Society and the exhibition that I will be developing work for in April, and this is my substitute for the Degree Show that my coursemates will be showing at in June.
The next slide in the deck contains information on the influence of other artists and also some of the challenges that I have encountered throughout the previous months. I was desperate to get back inside the buildings and take photos of some small details in the interiors, but efforts to contact the facilities team had left me with a couple of “no” responses.
The influences I mention are not all of my influences but mainly artists or groups that I have in my mind throughout this Shirehall project. Von Sternberg is an architectural photographer that captures entire buildings and details of buildings that I find pleasing to the eye. Stuart Whipps was involved in the Longbridge Art Project as per the research in this post and his documentation of the closing down of the car factory, and this informed some of my thinking. Mark Power has also been important thus far who explores sites and documents them in his own way, that I find reminiscent of some of my own work throughout the years and this project.
Next slide shows some of the developments in the third slide list and begins with the Exterior shots that I have captured and the following slides will also go through the further experiments and types of photos that I have been involved with.
The next development slide (6) features some of my aerial photographs made using a drone. I have been shooting from above looking down and then taking a photo face on to the building. It’s a small collection of images that I have made, but Euripides said that he thought the slide was a great collection as it stood. He mentioned that it worked well in terms of a group but helped me see that the solar panel image didn’t quite fit the same bill as the other three, so it was interesting to hear that and then take this forward on to the next part of the project work.
Slide 7 of the deck features interior shots captured from the two occasions that I was able to get inside the building (with permission and a guide). These are the photos that remind me of Mark Power’s work, I’m not saying I think my work is as good as Power’s work though. The overall vibe of these lends me to feel the same way as Power’s work makes me feel. There is a sadness to these images that I felt whilst taking the photos and being in the area. The photos that prompted some response included the blue blind and the wall with the missing maps and documents. They were emotive and considered some of the best of the bunch that I was sharing.
The next slide is a summary of some of the experiments that I have playing with over the last few months since beginning this project. On the slide is a set of blue, red and green prints that I pulled off the walls of the building (as per this video), the sliding puzzle that I 3D printed and then fixed some of the mosaic tiles to was the first 3D print, followed up by the Lithophanes as can be seen in the bottom right corner. These are pictures that are converted into a 3D Print file by changing the colours or tones of the image into slightly thicker sections that then appear darker when backlit .
The top right corner shows two prints that I made using a gel plate and some image transfer using acrylic paint. They didn’t come out too successfully but it was an experiment that I’ll retry at some point in the near future. The gel plate printing was supposed to use laser printed images of photos from my collection of Shirehall and then paint the gel plate with black acrylic for it to transfer the image across. The black acrylic gets sucked into the white areas of the laser page leaving those areas on the gel plate blank, whilst the black ink on the laser print prevents the paint getting sucked into the paper, leaving the black impression on the plate. Painting with another colour then sticking on a sheet of paper should pull it off completely .
Following on from this explanation of experimenting I concentrated on the archive images I have in my collection. Some of them are collected from the web, some from donors, and some from my own personal collection. The pictures of me on the right hand side of the page show me unicycling on the steps of Shirehall and I have few pictures of this but there are many videos on my YouTube channel.
Joining these Unibob (as I was known) photos are others from the architects at the time of building completion, a photo of Queen Elizabeth II on the day that she opened the Shirehall Buildings in 1967 and even a photo of the inside of some office spaces from a former worker who had responded to my facebook call out in the local area. I have many other images collected too that are a valuable addition to the archive, some that I can share and others that I have been asked not to.
From hereon in the slides take the form of some of my favourite images from the project thus far, and ones that I am considering for the exhibition.
The first being the blue blind from the top floor of the building. This is the photo that Euripides suggested had an air of Mark Power about it and that he liked it. He repeated it again in this review and it was also well received by the rest of the group sitting through this presentation.
The unused courtroom was on the next page and it garnered some nice reactions, primarily due to the natural daylight coming in via the flood of skylights in the roof of the courtroom. The muted colours and the wood and other textures all make this a lovely warm image.
This image was what I printed for the Interim Exhibition and I was pleased with it, but felt that it also has some downsides. One being that it is a 16:9 image and loses some of the details from the lower floors due to being cropped. As part of the reflection on the Interim Exhibition I have researched the settings for the drone and found that it is easier to shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio and then if I want to crop it , do it in the post processing. I have newer images that show the lower floors in more details but not the same reflections in the windows.
The walls in the underground emergency bunker have had all of the emergency preparedness documentation, charts, maps, contact lists, whiteboards and essential processes removed from the pin board that surrounds the walls. There is no daylight in this room so the darkening of the walls around the posters and items is purely from the artificial light from the fluorescent lighting. You can also see the lighter part of the wall at the foot where the desks would have reached up to.
From the journey around the boiler room I captured this blue painted valve on a pipe with green insulation. The OPEN sign tells people that the valve is currently open without having to test it. I liked the greens yellows and blues in this area of the site and this photo stood out to me.
Detailing some of the damage to the exterior walls and the mosaic tiles, as well as demonstrating the reflective nature of the film on the windows I like this photo as it shows the area of tiles that I made my block prints from.
With most of the building now standing empty, this is a shot through glass into and beyond the canteen area of the site. It shows the green space beyond that was once open to the general public to wander around but is now fenced in. The empty room in the front could be an office with the generic carpet and ceiling tiles but was once the place so many of the workers sat and had lunch whilst talking.
Similar to the image with the walls above this worked better in black and white, for me. It shows the floor, carpet, skirting, ventilation and the ceiling tiles of the area where people once toiled in the circumstances of emergency events. I have photos in my small archive of Tony Blair, PM at the time of the 2001 flood events in Shrewsbury, as he was touring this room as it was being used to coordinate the relief efforts for the people of the county.
One from a while ago, this shows the lit up staircase that is no longer illuminated. It would have been partially inhabited at the time so the stairs were required to remain lit and I really like the warm lights of the stairwell against the cold of the blue hour sky.
This is a shot from my drone in 2025 and shows a part of the building along with the floors and then the car park and walkways at ground level. There are a number of rectangles and squares which is what originally caught my eye. Again this was before I had changed to a 4:3 aspect ratio of the camera on the DJI Mini 4 Pro. I like low light shots in general and this one is no exception, the reflections in the windows of the offices also repeat the yellow checked markings from the prohibited space.
This slide was put on the screen to illustrate what the future of my project might consist of. Before I started explaining the slide, Euripides said that he really liked the image featuring on there too. I also like it greatly as it shows the different layers of the whole project. The windows, the mosaic tiles, the reflective film, the tiredness of the building, the refurb being done on the Lord Hill Column and even the lovely blue hour sky reflected.
I am still awaiting my redscale images to come back from the lab and they should have been back last week so I have chased them up today. I plan to continue with the 3D printer and build a model in Tinkercad or similar application so that I can create a 3D Model of the building, perhaps with an option to create a concrete model as per SpacePlay.
There are also options for me to create some video installations of the files that I have captured over the years at this site too, but the main future for the project is to create an exhibition piece for the inclusion in the exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.
Reflection
The review concluded with a few points and questions, notes of which were captured by Gavin and should be added to my assignment Rubric, so Ill add those here when they are completed.
Euripides closed out with a few notes to everyone though, all of which are valuable.
- Do more visual stuff on the reviews, fewer words
- Open with a big image and a title then share images and be sure to promote your work rather than explaining everything.
- Think of it as an exercise in Marketing rather than an assignment.
For these reasons I think that I’ll next time forego the title page as can be seen at the top of this post and concentrate more on sharing images as if it is a portfolio to be used as a marketing tool.
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