The soft sandstone sides of the Shutes Lane Hollow Way have become a home for rural graffiti, much of which follows familiar formulae but the exceptions are intriguing. Interestingly there’s virtually no sex or politics to be seen. Names and initials are present in great numbers as are images of eyes (evil and all-seeing) and hearts, most of which are simple incisions. Many have been scratched in haste while some display an interest in more finished letter forms with serifs and downstrokes. A few have taken the time to record aphorisms and more enigmatic text elements. The images of human heads fall broadly into three categories - simple incisions, basic formal modelling and complex modelling with spatial recession. Examples of non-human heads are usually non-specific while reflecting the visual clichés of the horror genre. I have been told I missed the single example of an unambiguously female head but many are gender non-specific. Homer Simpson makes two appearances alongside Stewie from Family Guy but nobody else can easily be recognised. More than a few share the characteristics of Outsider Art and communicate a genuine sense of human despair with conviction on a sliding scale from expressions of mild despondency to an existential scream of desperation drawn from the inorganic depths. There are expressionless eyes that appear to stare back at us as if they’ve been witnesses to unimaginable terrors and mouths that exhale the odour of brimstone. Then there are those that promise more than they can deliver - hours of hard labour carving out an emblem of terror and ending up with something faintly comic. Happiest of all are the unambitious mark makers whose scratchy efforts have a light charm. Finally - a salute to the five-legged elephant.
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