'Memories From the Present' : 'Empty Arcade', 2021

The painting: We are looking at quite a brutal space. Beige sandstone columns, ceiling and windowed sandstone walls frame the view. We can see a sign hanging from the ceiling. White lettering on a red background spell out 'Furniture and Electrical'. There is seating and a vertical column which is a bus stop. The whole scene is empty, devoid of people.

During the second lockdown (31st Oct - 2nd Dec 2020) the buses were running but most stops remained absent of people. This painting shows a collection of stops on Arundle Gate at the centre of the city. Usually busy, the absence of folk at the time felt like a scream.

'kenopsia'.
"The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet
[. . .] an emotional afterimage that makes it seem not just empty but hyper-empty, with a total population in the negative, who are so conspicuously absent they glow like neon signs"
John Koenig, ‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows'

See more about this fabulous word at my blog post - John Koenig’s 'Kenopsia', and 'The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows'