You Are the Journey 2015 at One Church Street Gallery

In 2006 myself and the painter R.A.Webb redesigned the Hythe to Southampton Pier and Ferry ten-journey ticket, to bring small messages from other passengers to the punch hole spaces; short phrases and poems that capture glimpses, thoughts or feelings from a commuter community taking an everyday journey to work. The Hythe Pier train shuttles commuters back and forth between land and water. It contains the passengers’ journey with the narrow 363 meter stretch of planks and metal ballasts which lead them to board the ferry at the far end. In the position of this long walkway and pier train track at each end of the journey, a parallel can be found with a selvedge – the process which forms a firm configuration of warp and weft threads at the extreme lateral edges of the cloth, in order to contain the fabric and stop it fraying. So too, the edge of the ticket is intensified by the punch holes spaces, and by passengers’ quotes which carry meaning through the inter-related composition and correspondence of each phrase.
To this day the threads of the coat captures utilitarian as well as poetic felt experiences in the warm, worn and fraying red fibres; concomitantly packets of used transport tickets are seemingly insubstantial everyday ephemera that are no longer valued as a commodity or document of travel and could easily be thrown away. However I would suggest that the tangible mater of a used transport ticket is capable of carrying the stories of others, revealed in the creases and wear and tear of a used tickets surface, and its intimate use and storage in a purse, back pocket or wallet. Concomitantly fragmented memories captured in the re-articulation of warp and weft threads from the seams and inside pockets of used outdoor clothing may be reactivated through the surface of the tickets form.

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