Photos: The Line — a walk in East London reveals more than contemporary art
Last Sunday we visited East London’s art walk The Line, a destination on our list since its opening in May 2015. Soon enough, we realised that the artworks were almost a pretext for our outing: the surroundings are of extraordinary interest for any inquiring Londoner.
These are bleak, liminal places, where London slowly starts to fade into the water and Essex; where it’s possible to see the Docklands’ industrial past still in the process of being reshaped into something else — it’s perhaps too early to tell exactly what. In the last few years, this land has seen the rise of numerous glass-and-steel buildings (cheap-looking ones, not of the shiny Canary Wharf/City variety), the Olympic Park, and more recently The Line.
The Line is in fact a contorted zig-zag — this is implicitly acknowledged in its inventive logo. Our journey started at Custom House DLR station, from the “N” to the “T” (we gave the final “E” a miss as the South-of-the-River installations are more conveniently reachable via North Greenwich). The grey sky seemed to somewhat fit the landscape.
The first three art installations we checked out are lined on the Northern-Western end of Royal Docks. Below is the view from the Emirates Royal Docks cable car station (a curious branding syncretism merging English Kings with Arab Emirs). Note Eduardo Paolozzi’s sculpture in the background.
The walk from Royal Docks to Star Lane (where the main Line route starts) is an instructive one. Nested between council/ex-council estates and littered green areas are various local churches, more often than not housed in nondescript buildings — like a slice of Middle America transposed in Little England. It was Sunday so, between a “Glory To God Coffee” advert and the next one, there was little human activity in sight except for churchgoers, families with children, and a loud arguing couple in Star Lane Park.
Walking past Cody Dock, we entered the main segment of The Line. Damien Hirst’s piece is only a short walk away from the basin in the photo below.
After admiring Abigail Fallis’ helicoid structure made of shopping carts (its location opposite a massive Sainsbury’s office building seems hardly a coincidence), we had a decidedly unglamorous detour via Bow.
Approaching Thomas J. Price’s piece and just before the end of The Line in Stratford, the waters of Three Mills Wall River are a busy stop for houseboats calmly resting in front of yet another building site.
It will be interesting to repeat this walk in 10 years’ time. The landscape will have changed again, probably resulting in a whole different set of photos and observations.
All photos taken with a Leica M Monochrom and 35mm lens.
For more info about The Line, visit http://the-line.org.
Would you like to see more photos? Explore www.fabiolugaro.com.
