ART

Joe Spurgeon meets ‘subvertising’ photographer Don Pedro.

We’ve all seen them. Those irreverently subverted billboards along the Bath Road, sticker-bombed street furniture in Stokes Croft or the omnipresent creep of graffiti, window posters, pavement art and bashed-off scrawlings decorating whatever surfaces intrude upon the public eyeline. Some (see pictures) are bang on the mark: instantly slicing through the calculatingly crass adspeak with an extra adjective here, a cut ’n’ pasted Tony Blair head there… others are more vitriolic: hate campaigns, political campaigns, social campaigns, protests; others, with a far lighter touch, are just for funzies. And some are just, well… rubbish.

But all add to the permanently morphing public art gallery of Bristol, and local photographer Don Pedro (not his real name) has been painstakingly capturing it all for over a decade, the results of which are collated into a limited edition book (‘Politics and Protest’, £12, Tangent) which launches as part of the Totterdown Art Trail this weekend, at his house on Hill Street.

What made you shoot ‘Politics and Protest’? Is Bristol a particularly fertile place for subvertising, punk art and the like? My motivation to photograph protest messages comes partly from the fact that someone can feel strongly enough to make a public statement. You can sense the strength of feeling. Sometimes you can’t avoid the strength of feeling because the language is so direct. There are also some very funny and clever commentaries. I’ve always been interested in politics, not in a direct and active way (I’ve been a trade union steward, but never belonged to a political party), but from the understanding that there can be profound consequences in any relationship depending on how power is exercised.

Bristol does have a reputation for its graffiti and there has been lengthy subvertising activity. One hot spot is on my cycle route to work, just before Bath Road bridge on the way into the city towards Temple Meads. The Stokes Croft area is a constantly evolving source of all kinds of graffiti, posters and stickers. But my rule is that you have to take the picture straight away. Within hours they could be gone.

Has taking the pictures influenced your own political persuasion or changed your view of the people you live amongst? ‘No’ to both questions. I’m recording other people’s views. As billboards are such a visual intrusion, I’m always happy to see them taken over or the paper ripped off.

Does Bristol seem an angry city to you? Or is it humorous, liberated, in tune… or something else? How you feel about a place depends to a degree on how you’re feeling in yourself. It also depends on where you live – different areas of cities tend to be polarised in terms of wealth and resources, and Bristol is no different. It doesn’t seem an angry city to me. Overall, it feels a lively and creative place, friendly and relaxed. Confident, maybe leftfield. I’m really glad my partner and I ended up here.

Did you meet any of the subvertisers? By chance I have met a subvertiser, but I wouldn’t say anything about them without their permission. I have been tempted to do my own, but haven’t done so yet.

Do you have any favourite pictures from the book? What I like most is the diversity of styles, viewpoints and methods of expression. The ones that make me smile tend to be the more outrageous or clever. ‘Climate Chaos Ahead’ is an example of a short, simple, well-placed message. It implicates the role of cars and fossil fuels in climate change through the ‘road ahead’ metaphor. The word ‘chaos’ conveys the seriousness of the issue and describes the potential reality.

POLITICS AND PROTEST BY DON PEDRO (£12, WWW.TANGENTBOOKS.CO.UK) WAS LAUNCHED IN BOOK FORM AT THE TOTTERDOWN FRONT ROOM ART TRAIL AND IS ON SALE IN LOCAL SHOPS.
 

Copyright Joe Spurgeon 2010; pics copyright Don Pedro 2010

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