yolanda crisp
Ringway documents a journey undertaken on foot around the North and South Circular roads in London. The roads skirt through the outer suburbs. The project begins in East London at the junction of the North Circular and the A13 and ends 46 miles later in Woolwich at the point where the South Circular meets the Thames. The title ‘Ringway’ comes from a road building scheme planned in the 1960s which would have seen the North and South Circular being redeveloped into a continuous ring road to be known as Ringway 2
The initial aim of the project was to explore the physical and psychological effect the roads have had on the surrounding terrain. As the journey progressed the project developed into an exploration of my emotional response to the North and South Circular as much as an investigation of the effect the roads have had on the environment on their periphery.
What I discovered was an uncanny hinterland, an environment where an off kilter reality emerges. In places especially along parts of the North Circular it feels as if the road acts as a void on the surrounding terrain causing the edges to collapse, revealing a malevolent beauty, a sense of the fabric of place having torn. Even along the suburban edges of the South Circular there is a feeling of unnatural absence. The atmosphere speaks of sudden disappearance and transitory journeys through the terrain, where the only signs of human habitation are the traces and relics left behind.
The initial aim of the project was to explore the physical and psychological effect the roads have had on the surrounding terrain. As the journey progressed the project developed into an exploration of my emotional response to the North and South Circular as much as an investigation of the effect the roads have had on the environment on their periphery.
What I discovered was an uncanny hinterland, an environment where an off kilter reality emerges. In places especially along parts of the North Circular it feels as if the road acts as a void on the surrounding terrain causing the edges to collapse, revealing a malevolent beauty, a sense of the fabric of place having torn. Even along the suburban edges of the South Circular there is a feeling of unnatural absence. The atmosphere speaks of sudden disappearance and transitory journeys through the terrain, where the only signs of human habitation are the traces and relics left behind.