Extract from Soap

Extract from Soap and Rocket photozine No. 2  ISSN 2399-3065 (9 772399 306001 02) (original publication date not specified)

By Chris Daly

The text was graffitied onto the outsides of six derelict houses on the Heygate Estate in London, circa 2011 – now completely demolished. The site became a magnet for parkour runners / gymnasts, graffiti artists, guerrilla gardeners and political activists. I was there messing around with a new camera & found the writing. I still can’t decide how much of its story is real / factual. Its presentation is exactly how it was written on the houses’ hoardings. 

I chose the pictures specifically to act as a foil, or contrast to the much darker subjects covered in the writing & to show images with no ambiguity about their provenance, spontaneity & ‘realness’. A forest. A car. A girl. And so on.  

The idea was to use the combination of writing & images to provoke dissonance for the viewer.

Chris Daly is a photographic artist based at CitizenReality.com 

Text: Lost words, 46-41 Chearsley, Anon.

No. 46 Chearsley

Marie –

I got picked on ‘cos I was in hand me downs
seventies gear in the eighties
And when I was 12, Christmas presents stopped
They’d never been much
anyway
I started shoplifting, and
one day I got caught
in Tesco’s. They took
me home in a
Police car.
Mum came out the house
Got into the car, and
She punched me in the head

Peter –

I formed a gang
with 5 other lads
and we started going
out to torment
the local shopkeepers

Sue –

I walked up to the altar

I must have been 12, I can remember
going to a meeting in church
in Manchester, and we sang this hymn
….’just as I am, without one plea’….
A lovely hymn

Peter –

I was a racist, sexist little pig
I was known as a trouble causer
a drinker, a fighter. I was small
wore glasses, had a squint

At 12 I had an operation to get
my squint straightened

No. 45 Chearsley

Marie –

I started skipping school

Dean –

I was always late for school

Natalie

When I was 12, Dad           For a few months the pain                               So I ran the

banged his head on       was so bad, he was bashing                                house. We’d just

a board that was                           his head against the wall.                         gone decimal, and

hanging outside a                         Then he died of a brain tumor.              there were only

toilet in Kirkgate                           I was on the doorstep of                           me who could

market                                going to a grammar school – work the
                                                                      difference out
                                                                but mum couldn’t cope                      

No. 44 Chearsley

Tina –
When I was 2, Mum met Wayne
my stepdad.
She had three more children by him,
and she also got battered
for 12 years. She’d get to
the point of leaving him, go
into a refuge, and the he’d
turn up and plead…….
I’ve changed. I have                                                                     Marie
really. I’ll not hit you                                                             again’                                                                                                  She told me my
Back she’d go and back he’d                                  real dads name wasstart hitting her                                                                             geoff.

No. 43 Chearsley

Marie –
                                                                                                                Sue –
He had other children. I was 4                                                                              

+ I asked my mum                                                                        mum died when

                                                                                                                I was 6

Natalie –

Mum’s one of
my emotional
deamons / she got
her way by emotional                                Blackmail                                                                                                 

 

Sue –                                                                                                    Tina

you need a                                                                                        I didn’t
know
mother…..                                                                                        my dad, my real dad
especially then.                                                                            

                                                                                                                Natalie –

Natalie –

                                                                                                                He paid all

She’s a demon                                                                                the bills. I don’t

in my mind                                                                                       know how he

                                                                                                                coped.

 

Peter –

Mum held the
family together really.                                                               Dean –
-Mum was the
one who got us all                                                                        Mum stuck by                             
to school, tried to                                                                         me through everything
stop the fights                                                                I remember crying to
                                                                                                        her in the car that
                                                                                                        when I died I didn’t
                                                                                                        want to go somewhere
                                                                                                        she wouldn’t be

 

No. 42 Chearsley

Peter –

The thing you have to remember is its
somebody’s life

Natalie –

And you think
this is happening
in my family

Natalie –

Prior to finding out
I was judgmental
as anyone else
But when it’s your….

Peter –

Dad would go along
with the Police
When they called
at our house…
Took the police’s
word opposed to his own
son’s

Natalie –

Dad managed
to go to work,
run the house,
and look after us

Marie –

I always
knew very
little that
my dad had
been married
before

Sue –

dad remarried
when I was 6, and
moved to Manchester
I didn’t get on
with my stepmother
and I suppose I
blamed my dad for it

Sue –

It was my
own son doing it

Dean –

Dad would
come into my
room, sometimes
he would shout
and tear things
off the wall and
smash them

No. 41 Chearsley

Sue –

Suddenly,
It’s your
family

Natalie –

Not someone
else – you

Dean –

 

Known them all my life

Paul –

My one and only best mate

Sue –

my son

Peter –

Sometimes
It reminds
me of a
war
zone

Natalie –

We’d heard about it of course

 

Sue –

It’s anybody’s child now

Dean –

it’s been all funeral’s since
the autumn

Sue –

There are pictures on
the wall of all the young men
who have died

 

Marie –

There was one on
Christmas eve

Tina –

One 3 weeks before that

Marie –

Another 5 days after


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