The Alley Gater's Domain
Nominated for RIBA Bronze Presidents Medal 2009
Awarded Best 3rd Year Portfolio at University of Nottingham - June 2009
The alleyways of Bristol are currently being gated consequently evicting the ‘behind the scenes’ activity of the city and reducing the spontaneity and sense of discovery that is inherent in the nature of these spaces as tears in the reality of routine and entrances to the individual imagination, dreams and memory. The relationship between permanence and temporality, fragility, is particularly poignant in the alley spaces which, on a macro scale appear motionless, unchanging and in some ways disconnected. On a micro scale the unseen spaces become beautifully temporal with a layered veil of subtle moments, which trigger changes in spatial condition as a consequence of small pressures on the space, magnified by the absence, (e.g. the rhythmic dropping of water or the fast moving reflection of passing traffic), which hangs over the physical permanence of the space.
The Alley Gater resides in the alleyway at Tower Walk using the space for observation and rehearsal to establish a greater understanding of the subversive and essential activity that is inherent in spaces of this character. The Gater scripts a collection of choreographed sequences, through the use of carefully designed and catalogued props, each emphasising a different aspect of the space in which it is set (e.g. the display/amplification of fragile moments or the expression of the subversive activity of the city). The alleyway becomes a theatre of fragile moments in which occupation is transitory and intensification is essential.
Hanging above the alleyway the inserted space of the Alley Gater amplifies his presence negating the possibility of a passive observation. The metal cages bang with movement, the chalk scrapes along the board echoing throughout the space and the falling shower of chalk dust both imply occupation and act to extend the boundaries of the enclosure beyond the physical extents of its architecture. Discarded from the facade of the city, litter, leaves, leaflets etc are collected in the alley spaces and in this same way the Alley Gater’s domain acts to amplify this characteristic of the space by collecting the products of processes both internal and external to the functioning vessel. The collection of dripping water, moving leaves, leaflets, chalk dust and birds feathers all of which are used in a consequent process within the space.
