hidden treasures

It’s not the most salubrious area of Cardiff. The main artery of City Road is often lined with strangely alternative rubbish waste – household items and pieces of clothing – as well as the traditional fare – empty cans of super strength lager, polystyrene fast food boxes.

There are copious restaurants and fast food outlets, a strong number of ethnic supermarkets and a good sprinkling of garages.

It leads up to (or perhaps forms) the beginning of Roath, which has some lovely parts. By and large, City Road is not one of them.

On a lunch-break or two in recent weeks, for want of somewhere different to stretch my legs, I found myself wandering down and off City Road.

Quite unexpectedly, a number of back streets are brightened and animated by brilliant street art, a number of which appear to be the work of an artist named ‘Colour Doomed’.

Photographing these has added interest to a couple of lunch-breaks.  I enjoy playing with the art in photographing it, using selective colour-pop effects, riffing on the vibrancy of the paint opposed to the usually dowdy, downtrodden surroundings.

I also enjoy the interaction of the art with its living environment, the passers by who, merely in passing by, can add another dimension to the art, transforming it into street photography and altering meaning in the same way billboard advertising can.  It’s curious how a piece of art can make you yearn for a passer-by to complete the image, or add an extra dynamic.

This following piece confused me at the time I took this, and I’ve wandered back since to see if I can figure it out.  I still can’t. No bad thing.

I particularly liked the effect of this piece below, the mural appearing to illustrate a figure inspecting himself, while the passer by is inspected by a CCTV camera, frame left.

This pigeon also placed itself nicely.

A number of striking and stylish pieces help to enliven back streets which do not feel as safe and hospitable as an art gallery, although they wouldn’t feel out of place there.  Unfortunately you have to venture a little off the beaten track to find them, unless you’re in the know or have heard about them through cooler, edgier grapevines than any to which I am party.

I know nothing about them, but there are a number of real talents working away, creating interesting work from paint, their talent and canvases which are otherwise utterly ignorable, nothing worth look at all.