Discarded Intimacy

After walking around some residential area, we came back to the main road, well it’s called Brixton hill I think. My friend wanted to show me a bar that he used to go to alot, it’s called The Fridge Bar. In front of that bar I found a green children’s cap with the writing St. Peter’s Primary School: Everyone Counts. Cute! The brand is Blue Max: Junior Top Cap. It must belong to a little girl or boy living in the area. Oh poor thing. There was some people waiting at the bus stop nearby. Should I do it? Should I take out my ‘weapons’ and do it? Hell yea! I’m getting to be quite a pro at this thing. It took me under two minutes to draw the outline and take the pictures.

I have finally managed to persuade one of my good friends to explore Brixton with me. He used to live in the area, so it was even better! We went out at around 10-ish and when we got there we walked around a bit. We came to a small park where all the homeless people hang out (so my friend says) and we found a woolen coat there! It was a ladies trench styled tweed coat. It was quite nice. I was going to take a picture of it and take it, but my friend adviced me against it: “It probably belongs to one of the homeless guys here, and they are not going to be too happy about you taking in.” I thought about it, looked around, and I decided to leave it first, maybe someone left it by mistake. It would be horrible to lose your coat. So we went on with our walk. He took me to a road where he used to live. It was a road full of blocks of flats. On one of the lawns I saw the most peculiar thing: three shoes (three single shoes, not pairs!) lying on the grass, close to one another. One was a women shoe and the other two looked like baby shoes. It was just left there on the lawn of Flat 35-107 Crownstone Road, forming a weird looking triangle. Too bad I didn’t have my spary paint. I could have sprayed the grass. It would have looked nice. So I just took pictures of each of the shoes. The gold shoe looked like a dog bit it. It was a size six Donna Trend (the brand name). The brand of the others are Confetti & Iggi (size 23) and Kickers (it has a big number 2 written on it but I doubt it’s the size). Near the lawn I found a red children’s bike lying on its side. It looked nice. I took a picture of it as well. Back home in Indonesia, it would be gone in 1 minute!

Today I went to Kingsland Road to look for disposable boiler suits and a metal case for my forensic kit. Oh, I haven’t written that i am going to do forensic analysis of all the clothes. You know, CSI style? But to make it have more impact, I am going to do it British style. With a proper boiler suit with my logo printed on it and a case with all my kit. I wonder how people would react when I do that? I am trying to persuade m friend to come with me. I think he is up for it. Another friend volunteered as well, this one really likes performing in public. So it should be good. I really need to confront my fear of being different in public. Maybe this will help. Well.. anyway.. I was walking all around Kingsland Rd lookingf or clothes and also all along the parallel roads. But..none! Nothing! When my feet couldn’t take it anymore I decided to catch the bus to go to London Bridge and then go home from there. On teh bus I kept an eye out for clothes. And then I spotted something yellow that looks like fabric. So I pressed the ’stop’ button and when to check it out. It was a kid’s jacket! Nice color. The brand was cut off and itw as a bit damp. It still had size written on it, 12M/M, 74 cm. maybe a 3 year old? It looks like a boy’s jacket. I know I shouldn’t discriminate. Girls like yellow as well. But you know how it is, your parents choose your clothes when you are young. You have no say in what you wear. So to make it easier it is usually decided that girls will wear lots of pink and pastel color with flowery and otehr girly prints while boys will wear blue or other strong primary colors. No prints. Or maybe pictures of cars, airplane, robots, etc. I looked around to try and find out where it was, Bishopsgate in front of a huge and ugly office building, number 288, The corner of Spital Square and Bishopsgate.

This discarded clothes project of mine have finally caught on to my other friends. One of my lovely housemates came hoem from his walk tonight and told me that he found a shirt hanging on a fence on Harefield Road. I was getting ready to go to bed, but I really should stick to the label of obsessive collector that I bestowed upon myself. So I grabbed my jacket, camera, and spray paint and went out to get it. There was no way I could use chalk on that Fence. So I sprayed it a bit, just to leave the telltale mark that something was there. Shhhh.. don’t tell anyone. It was a bit damp. I wonder if the kid who left it got too hot during the day and just took it off? This reminds me of the baby jacket I found in Greenwich tunnel. Do people just take their clotehs off pon the street and leave them there? I really don’t understand sometimes. I get it when I find a scarf or one half of a pair of gloves on the street, someone probably dropped it, but jackets? Shirts? Shoes? Bra strap?
Update: When I started analyzing it I turned the sweater the right way around (it was inside out) and found that it is a Brockley Primary School sweater. Cute! Age5/6. Looks very worn and torn.
Found some fibers that look like curly dog hair on it. White and black.

I know this is cheating a bit, but it was a cold day and I was really really tired. I noticed this shoe thrown on the front lawn of the house I’m sharing with four other very lovely people about a month ago, but I thought that this did not count. But I thought about it, and hey! This shoe once belonged to someone as well. Once it was worn on someone’s foot, so I guess this counts. When I decided to collect it, I saw that weed has started to grow on the shoe. It was starting to become a permanent fixture of our very dirty and messy front lawn (if you can call it that). Isn’t sad to see a shoe that was probably well loved and worn once to be left on its own for so long? when I pulled it off the grund (with a bit of muscle work) I saw that the shoe was probably still in a pretty decent condition when it was thrown out. Anyway, here is the picture of the shoe with the weeds growing on it and on its own.

For my clothes hunt today I walked from Brockley to Lewisham Way all along the big road, sometimes going into small roads and turned right up towards Hilly Fields park. The first part of the walk I did not find anything (as is usually the case, I’ve learned , when you are really looking or something). And then I saw one glove (another one of those special work gloves), unfortnately it was in an enclosed space. So I could not get it. Luckily, on the way up to Hilly Fields park I saw another glove! This time it’s one half of a pair of latex gloves. I was a bit reluctant to pick it up as latex gloves are associated with medical purposes, and I really don’t want to get infected with any bacteria or virus doing this project. Good thing I brought my plastic bag. Next time, I have to bring a pair of my own latex gloves! and anti bacterial wipes for that matter. Oh, the time was 22.12.

I did not expect to find any clothes on this outing to North London. However, walking back from Queens Park school I saw the trousers outside a shop. I was with a friend who has never seen me do this before and she was really disgusted by it. I did not do it straight away though. As much as I want this project to continue, I still did not like the idea of putting something very dirty and smelly in my bag. So I went to the shop across the street bought something and used the plastic bag to store the trousers. Again, no one was looking. Not many people went by but the ones who did not seem to care. The time I think was around 6 pm. A bit windy and cold. Oh, forgot to say where this was exactly: hmm it was in front of a shop in a junction on a street called High Road, NW10, London Borough of Brent.

This day was my second attempt at taking at least 2 hours to go for a walk somewhere in London to look for discarded clothes. I decided to go to Lewisham and tried to look for clothes there. I went walking around Lewisham shopping center and all around the residential areas near the shopping center, but after 2 hours of walking, no luck. Just a pair of very tired legs. Hmm.. I went home a bit frustrated. Why is it that when you are looking for something, you just never do find it?
After spending the last two weeks being cooped up in the library and at home, working, I decided to go for a night out with my housemates. There was a party at a pub on Kingsland Road that sounbded interesting so we decided to go. The first stop was 1001 on Brick Lane for a couple of beers and people watching. On our way to 1001 we found 3 gloves! You know gloves people use to work with. Next to a garbage bin. One was lying on its own while a pair were lying close to it. So I did my thing and took pictures. Used the bag we had our booze in from the off license shop to put the filthy gloves in. Later on on our way to the other club I saw a whole wardrobe of clothes, literally! First I saw a pair of trousers on the street (specially tailored pants, no size), and then nearby a white buttoned long sleeve shirt (Van Heusen, size 16, Large) and a long sleeved dark gray shirt (Sportway, size 16). I was thinking to myslef, oh what a find!! And the I saw right next to it there was a sack of clothes on the ground! This was the place on Brick Lane where people have a street market to sell the odd bits and bobs. I then thought, oh no! Maybe they were what people were selling in that market! I so wanted to take that sack of clothes, but I decided to leave it in the end. Hmm maybe I’ll come back on Sunday to see if it is still there. Hmmmph.. these clothes really smell!

Sitting down on the train going from Brockley to London Bridge I found this hair band. Thouht about using it for my hari that day, but they I thought about my project. Since this is worn on a part of a body (hair), this should qualify as a personal article of clthing, right? So I took it and drew the outline using my trusty yellow chalk on the seat of the train.

After a really terrible presentation of this project on Monday, I was determined to make this a better project and to discover more clothes. To do that I have decided that I will spend some tme everyday to walk around and look for discarded clothes. Today I decided to go to the most commercial area of London: Oxford Stree, Bond Street and Tottenham Court Rd. I walked for hours around this area, including exploring all the back streets, alleys and other streets that are connected to these ones, and after around one and a half hour of walking around without finding anything I was ready to give up. And then I saw a pair of gloves outside a building that looks like it was under construction or renovation on Stratford Place (just by Bond St tube station). Thgey were work gloves, I think. You know. the type with rubber palms. They were thrown out and were soaked in dirty water. I did not have any plastic bag on me and at that moment I thought that work gloves do not count since they are not something people wear everyday. I thought of them more like a tool to complete a job. Something that was essential for your work, that you wouldn’t have worn on another occasion. With that lame thinking in mind (plus the fact that they were really filthy and wet) I left the gloves, thinking that I would be able to find other things. However, a couple of hours and a couple of blistered feet later I was still with empty hands. Nothing! The streets were so clean! Everywhere I looked there was always someone cleaning the streets. Feeling the frustration, I to the tube on Bond st to go home. In the tube I started thing about the gloves, and how even though they are only used for working, they were once a part of someone’s personal belonging that were worn on a part of his/her body. And after mentally kicking myself, I got off the next stop and started heading back to Bond st station to look for the gloves. The problem was that I did not remember where the street was. OUtside the station I just got confused. Should I turn right? or left? or walk straiht ahead acorss the road? I couldn’t decide. So I decided to just folow all teh route I remembered taking. After another hour of walkinga round I still did not find the damn thing! Can yo believe that?? By that time my feet were ready to give out, so I started walking abck to the station agian. And you know what? In front of the station I looked across the street and I saw the street I’ve been looking for! So I went there and manged to find not only one pair of gloves but two! Well.. at least my extra effort paid off! Took pictures of both, drew a yellow mark around one and left. I put them in a fancy paper bag I found nearby.