“The strength that comes from human collaboration is the central truth behind civilization's success and the primary reason why cities exist. To understand our cities and what to do about them, we must hold on to those truths and dispatch harmful myths. (...) Above all, we must free ourselves from our tendency to see cities as their buildings, and remember that the real city is made of flesh, not concrete.” (Glaeser, 2012, p.15)   

 

London became a constant presence in my work during my MA course. However, trying to decipher and understand a city so complex, constantly changing and evolving is not an easy task. 

 

“This is london: the conquest of one postcode by another. These are slum streets for which they have dreams. There will be coffee shops where there is cash and caries. There will be cocktails where there are yams. There will be bicycles outside organic delicatessens.” (Judah, 2016, p.348)

  

Throughout the years many artists and authors tried to portrait this city, understanding their many layers. I looked into artists who did precisely that such as Leon Kossof, Frank Auerbach, Gilbert and Gorge, among others, in order for me to understand how they interpreted the feeling of being in this particular place. But also writers such as Mark Mason, Ben Judah or Ian Sinclair, man of them who still struggle to decipher London’s enigma. 

 

“I had waked here - and I would soon walk on, I’m not sure where - because my sense was that London , my home for fifty years, was being centrifugally challenged to the point of obliteration; of being unable to say just where, and why, it began and ended.” (Ian Sinclair, 2017, p.6) 

 

By walking I tried to fuse myself with the city and to incorporate that feeling into my work. A difficult, most likely impossible task, but one that London freely invites us to try.  

 

Artists and authors

 

Ian Sinclair

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Ben Judah

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Charles Dickens

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Frank Auerbach 

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Leon Kossof

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Mark Mason

 

Books, exhibitions and others

 

Martin, A (2012) Underground Overground. London: Profile Books LTD

 

Solnit, R. (2001) Wanderlust a History of Waking. London: Granta Books

 

Coverley, M. (2006) Psycogeography. Herts: Oldcastel books

 

Glaeser, E. (2012) Triumph of the City. London: Penguin Books

 

Judah, B. (2016) This is London. London: Picador

 

Greene, J. (2014) Moral Tribes. London: Penguin Books

 

Taylor, C. (2011) Londoners. London: Granta Publications

 

Sinclair, I. (2017) The Last London. London: Oneworld Publications

Mason, M. (2011) Walk the Lines. London: Arrow Books