Soliloquy by Al Palmer
Soliloquy is an exploration of the edge of a city, where suburbs begin and industry ends. This is often an overlapping area, a single housing block among industrial units and businesses springing up among homes. Often dismissed as soulless estates due to a perceived lack of character, these areas struggle for identity, which often often leads to several waves of work upon an area.
The margins of a city are always slowly expanding and contracting, quietly related to issues such as immigration, economic growth, and gentrification. This slow rhythm engages the viewer; the city that is revealed doesn't exist but is a composite of many places.
These liminal spaces are of an area constantly in flux; the mundane elements of the suburbs become markers and indicators for an area without a fixed identity but several different objectives. Such districts exist in every city, their familiar sign posts – derelict buildings, skips, palettes – showing the city limits in a transitional period.
Al Palmer lives and works in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
To view more of Al's work, please visit his website.
