Fulham, London

Boarded up shops. Once again, beauty in the most unexpected places.

I was watching an interview with the german artist, Andrea Buttner , talking about her work with shame and how it has been a theme in some of the art that she has made. I am interested in why we pretend. Why for some people it is more attractive to pretend rather than simply look at what is real. And that they cannot see that when we look at what is real then we are looking at what is really beautiful.

So many people cannot own or admit the truth of who they really are. They take shelter in pretence, adjusting things until they hope that this pretend reality looks nice to others. Inside they are sitting on a toxic wasteland consisting of the knowledge of what they have done. But rather than face it and tell the truth (even to themselves) there is a pretend reality that is constructed in the hope that others will find this beautiful. The trouble is that behaving like this has consequences for others. Nothing can be mended as nothing can be owned or confronted. People become obsessed with how they look since how they are inside has no value. People think it is enough to SAY that they are kind and truthful without BEING kind and truthful. It is what you APPEAR to be that has value. There is no beauty at all in the everyday, the ordinary. This belief system causes a deep sense of depression in society as a whole.

I think this is caused by a belief that what is inside is so ugly that nobody could possibly face it. What I try and show in images like this is that if you really look at what is real there is the most profound beauty. That the everyday and ordinary are beautiful. That rubbish from a takeaway lying in the street is beautiful. That the people who live in the big social estates throughout the world shouldn't be ignored and imagined as less than others - because they don't own as much. That the greatest beauty comes from the everyday and ordinary. And what is real.

I am going to change the heading of London Estates int The Discarded. Because I think this is a much broader topic. The secondary title is The Desire Behind the Discarded. Because of the desire to be seen for who or what you really are. As belonging and beautiful.