Poles Apart

I have walked past this pole in Tamarama many times, yet had never examined its layered surface before today.

Instead of rushing past as I had always done, I began to document the markings which were the remains of years of sticky tape, adhesive backed paper and cracked paint. 

For me it had a Wabi Sabi beauty, the process of time and the deterioration that created a layering of texture akin to abstract paintings. Tracks where the tape had been removed and the dirt from the street had adhered, appeared as the deliberate strokes of an artist. Yet this was not a deliberate intention, it was random happening where both man and nature have intervened. 

Some of the more recent sections of tape were still attached. They flickered in the wind like a vibrational dance. Caressed by sun & wind they bore witness to the gentle process of deterioration.

Colours from the ink in the posters of the past were creating an interesting patina. As I was enjoying this,  I began to reflect on the concept of connection. It was obvious from my study of the pole that what I had long considered to be an inanimate object, was in fact animated by its the overlay of tape & paper that formed part of the evolution of its surface.

I thought of how it is possible to overlook or dismiss the layers present in others we connect with. Not necessarily deliberately but purely as a response to the bustle and pace of our everyday interactions - we so rarely get to connect to the many layers of human experience present. Like my continual passing of the pole, we fail to understand the cultural patina that affects behaviour created from upbringing, social conditioning and political and geographical differences.

The reflection of such, brought to my attention the fact that we can be poles apart in terms of our ability to find the points of connection. Yet such limits might be offset if we can slow down long enough to observe the beautiful overlays present in each person we meet. Such overlays can form the ties or common threads that bind us to our shared human experience.