Made with motorway grime

This motorway event is coming to a gallery right by me in Vauxhall, so I’ll be going along.  As uniquely C20 structures, I can’t help but be fascinated by motorways, and I’m slightly disappointed that we’ve never had a casework campaign for a motorway service station (most got wrecked too fast). The event is the lauch for a book which I’ve not yet seen, but will review–it promises to mix “poetry, analysis, commentary and fiction”.  The most intriguing thing is that there is a print you can buy (by artist Edward Chell–no idea what it looks like) which is actually made from grime collected along the M20. Reminds me of a work my daughter was fascinated by at our local art college, that was  an image of an English Bull Terrier made from cremated bull terrier dust–which makes this one seem positivley normal and fine to have in any home…and I guess grime is more easily come by than ashes–this is an edition of 30–there was only one bull dog!

The event will also have motorway expert and C20 supporter David Lawrence speaking– which has reminded me to chase up his book “Food on the Move: the Extraordinary World of the Motorway Service Area”, the follow up to the more inticingly-titled  “Always a welcome: the glove compartment history of the British motorway service area”, a long-time favourite of mine.

You can order David Lawrence’s book (which has contributions by Alain de Botton and Iain Borden) here: http://www.motorwayservices.info/site/food-on-the-move

Details of the exhibition and the event are here: http://beaconsfield.ltd.uk/projects/poetics-of-the-motorway/