Come Away with Me to the Corners and Leave the Clamouring Aisles Behind.
The beauty of a physical world in a digital age.
Squeak. Clank. The metal cover hits the wall. The paper towel rustles, I release my foot and walk away. Confirmation clang as the lid falls back down. The type of bin you find in hospitals with a horizontal bar for your shoe to open it. Avoid touching any surface with your hands.
The best thing I’m going to do today I have already done. I bought a fuse for the garage so the computer and washing machine can work. It also led me to the supermarket where the toilets inspired me. Not the actual toilet itself, but where they are in the shop. The odd corner and its freaky collection.
Ordinary is inspiring. Olivia Twist’s woodcutting of life in the kitchen and her fascination for the mundane somehow lets me say “I love this too!”. Her work shows everyday life; buying chicken wings before catching the bus home from school, Barbershops and plaiting hair. Her inspirations include Adama Jalloh, whose photography captures people in London. Not the relaxed London vibe and decadence, but bus stop London. Walking along a pavement with broken edges beside shops selling outside of the internet world. A sign where you can get passport photos done. A physical copy you post in a red letterbox with a signed application form.
There’s a photo cabinet near the food store toilets. Supermarkets have interesting corners. The chief trade is the centre, with special offers at the end of each aisle. The corners are for the purposeful and determined. To go there, you want something. It may be tea towels or mattress protectors. Quiches. Long-life milk. The toilets.
Finding this corner is an adventure in sign reading and mysterious symbols. In my local store, toilets hide in a small corridor between the dry cleaners and the information desk.
The lady working in the launderette is ironing with a long lead suspended from a stand whilst chatting on the phone. The squat cash machine box opposite charges a fee for dispensing. Next to it is the photo booth for passport photos, identity cards, and driving licenses. I remember the background choice used to be white, which added a ghost-like appearance to your face, the 1970s orange curtain, or the blue with a subtle weave. The seat you swivel to get to the right height in the mirrored glass. These booths now live only in train stations and supermarkets as the Woolworths’ habitat disappeared.
Besides, the photo booth is three photocopiers. Why three? An odd neighbour, the same size as the photocopier, houses a carpet cleaner for hire. A Key cutting machine because we still turn locks with our hands. Ask the information desk to help you.
At the far end, a door for staff, and opposite two doors for the loos. Be careful not to glance too long to the left into the men’s lavatory as this is France and so quite open. The ladies’ toilet has two cubicles, two sinks, the hospital bin and a choice of paper towels or wall mounted hand dryer. So many questions. Which toilet? Toilet paper on roll or floor? Which sink? The nearest or the one with soap? Paper towel or dryer? Environmental considerations; is paper or dryer more environmentally friendly? Sanitation; is the dryer a source of all germs known? Is the paper the Covid spreader? Should I shake my hands vigorously on the way out, or wipe on my coat and hope no-one notices?
It feels like a small corner of humanity here. A place where you want to be unobserved, and you try not to observe.
A space within a food store that reflects basic needs. The cash machine for paper money. The digital age that calls for physical photographs paid for by coins fed into a slot. Copies of sheets with a light that moves from left to right. Cleaning and ironing, with tools shaped from before electricity.
“What is beautiful in the commonplace” Ben Lifson
A small space full of history, hopes, to-dos, desires, questions, choices, and memories.
“to feel confident to share their truth, experimenting and seeing the value in small stories — not everything has to be grand and spectacular. Just celebrating the mundane and encouraging people to take time and look carefully at the world around them, ” Olivia Twist.
Take my hand; I promise it’s clean and dry. Explore the quiet corners with me and leave the clamouring aisles behind.
