Railway Lines
10/05/2000
"The green corridors of railway lines that intersect the suburbs, rarely trespassed and little-known, are the conduits for the hidden city. In spring, the melodious warbling of birds serves to hide the faint mechanical sounds emanating from innocent-looking copses and seemingly ingénue verges.
If one looks down at the platform beneath one's feet, at times its hard, grey concrete surface appears to undulate gently to the murmuring breeze. In the passing flash of a train, this lilt has gone, vanishing cleverly, imitating the optical tricks one's mind sometimes plays when the heaviness from merely sitting and waiting for a train becomes soporific.
The branches of the laburnums seem to mock one's drowsiness with their slow swaying, hiding crumbling brickwork of multicoloured stone. And quietly, almost imperceptibly, the underground machinery cranks on."
With People, or Absence?
How prominent should people be in this project? People can be referred to through the residue they leave behind. Can individual pieces become metaphorical stand-ins for people - certain people?
If one looks down at the platform beneath one's feet, at times its hard, grey concrete surface appears to undulate gently to the murmuring breeze. In the passing flash of a train, this lilt has gone, vanishing cleverly, imitating the optical tricks one's mind sometimes plays when the heaviness from merely sitting and waiting for a train becomes soporific.
The branches of the laburnums seem to mock one's drowsiness with their slow swaying, hiding crumbling brickwork of multicoloured stone. And quietly, almost imperceptibly, the underground machinery cranks on."
With People, or Absence?
How prominent should people be in this project? People can be referred to through the residue they leave behind. Can individual pieces become metaphorical stand-ins for people - certain people?
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