AUGUST 2024 · PATINA
Retro-futurism / goats
Purdown, Stoke Park, Bristol
The Purdown telecommunications tower rises above Stoke Park on the northeastern edge of Bristol — the sci-fi structure over the former hospital grounds, visible from most of the city. Below it, the WWII anti-aircraft gun battery emplacements sit corroded and tagged, the concrete structures partially overgrown. The goats live here now.
A white goat stands amid graffiti-covered walls in an abandoned structure, entirely at ease. A brown and white goat stands before the spray-painted walls with the city skyline visible beyond the gun battery's edge. A brown goat, head in profile, against a cloudy sky. Another facing the camera: curved horns, direct expression. They move through the structures as if the distinction between inside and outside doesn't apply.
The goats don't know the order and it doesn't matter to them.
Purdown — August 2024
The battery itself is the record of what happened here after the war — not cleared, not restored, but accumulated. The interior of one corroded metal structure: graffiti on every surface, the rust working through beneath. Rusty metal bunker structures with layered graffiti and urban decay. Weathered concrete walls with spray-painted designs and vegetation growing into the base. Corroded metal close up: the paint surface and the rust competing for the same area, the rust winning.
The overgrown gun emplacement with faded graffiti-covered concrete. The tower in its context: Purdown communications tower rising above the overgrown hedgerow, the tower's tripod structure visible above the vegetation.
I framed the goats against the bunkers deliberately. They're the current occupants. The graffiti writers are past occupants. The gun crews are the oldest layer. The goats don't know the order and it doesn't matter to them. The brown goat in the shadow of a graffiti-covered bunker wall looks back at the camera with the particular indifference of an animal that has nowhere better to be.
White goat standing amid colorful graffiti-covered walls in abandoned structure
Brown goat head in profile against cloudy sky
Purdown communications tower rising above overgrown grass and hedgerow
Grayscale goat head with curved horns facing camera
Black and white goat standing on barren ground in monochrome
Graffiti-covered concrete structures with bold geometric and text designs
Brown and white goat standing before spray-painted walls with city skyline beyond
Interior of corroded metal structure with colorful graffiti on all surfaces
Brown and white goat on overgrown platform with graffiti walls in background
Rusty metal bunker structures covered in layered graffiti art and urban decay
Weathered concrete bunker walls with colorful spray-painted designs and vegetation
Corroded metal structure with vibrant graffiti marks close-up detail
Overgrown gun emplacement with faded graffiti-covered concrete structures
Brown goat in shadow of graffiti-covered bunker walls