On Our Doorsteps: Richard by Tiitu Takalo
Transcript
The artwork that you can see here is by Finnish graphic novelist Tiitu Takalo. It is one of 6 large artworks presented on 3m x 1.5m billboards around the Sweet Briar Marshes Nature Reserve in Norwich as part of a nationwide project called On Our Doorsteps.
The artwork is made up of a series of 13 smaller pictures, presented across three rows. In each one we see a scene depicting people and landscapes represented in delicate line drawings colours with atmospheric watercolours that capture the soft tones of the landscape and weather conditions. It is clear that this is an artwork that has been make carefully by hand, then reproduced much larger to fill the 3m wide billboard.
In the first panel, top left, we see a figure dressed in green and brown clothing with a camouflage coat and hat. He is riding an electric mobility scooter. This is Richard. He is white man with neat grey hair and glasses. Beside him walks a figure in a grey hoodie, jeans, walking boots and a cap. This is Tiitu, the artist. She is white, has short hair and also wears glasses. They are walking left to right infront of a landscape of long yellow grasses and distant trees.
Text written above the figures says: I come here regularly. Been coming here since 1957 or 58. I was just a boy then.
In the second panel we see a close-up profile of Richard’s face. Tiitu is turning to look back at him as he speaks. The text above them says: My father was a shift worker and he used to go off to work six in the morning. I used to say to him ‘when you get up at five or four, wake me up.’
In the third panel, we see a close-up drawing of a small boy with flowing hair and a white, short-sleeved shirt. He is sneaking under a barbed wire fence. It is not light yet and the colours of the landscape behind him are all deep, misty purples. Above the drawing the text says ‘I went through a barbed wire fence. I was about eight years old. I’d have a wander here and then go to school.’
The next picture shows the back of the boy’s head and shoulders. He is looking across a landscape as the sun comes up in the distance. The trees are all deep blue, whilst the sky is warm pink. Where the sun is about to appear over the horizon, glowing yellow and orange light streams upwards. The text reads: ‘I love it. You know what I mean? Morning.’
In the next image, we see the boy again, standing beneath a tree facing the viewer with his hand resting on the tree trunk. This time the landscape is painted in dark and mysterious shades of blue. The tree is almost black. The text says: ‘Then at night, sometimes I’d come over here again.’
In the first picture on the second row, we see a young man in a reddish brown jumper crouching behind a green bush. Behind the bush we see a male police officer wearing a traditional uniform and hat. He stand with his hands on his hips looking across the landscape, but away from the young man behind the bush. Above him, the text read: Sometimes I hunted rabbits so I ran away from the police. I got caught over eight times. This was 1963 onwards.
In the next image we see Richard, now aged around 14. We see his head shoulders and torso. Delicately, he is holding up a butterfly which perches on his little finger, inspecting it carefully. A vivid swirl of yellows and greens suggests summer sunshine bursting through the canopy of leaves above him. The text reads: ‘But I love the peace and quiet of the place, the nature and wildlife.’
The third picture in the second row shows a calm, still scene. Richard sits beneath a huge tree, his back against its heavy grey trunk, looking out across a bright green meadow to darker green trees in the distance. By his feet, a small dog sits with his back to us, also looking out across the landscape. ‘When I had my dog,’ the text reads ‘we’d sit under this particular tree. You could see all around, anything wandering around, like deer or foxes.’
In the final picture in the second row, the warm, deep colours suggest that it is very early in the morning and not fully light yet. We see the young man again, standing beside a tree, surrounded by bushes. This time we can’t see his face as he is pulling his red t-shirt up over his head, revealing his chest. The text says: ‘You get favourite places where you like to sit. Even on my own, when I didn’t have the dog, I sat under the same tree.’
In the first image on the final row of pictures, we see the young man’s bare feet and legs as he removes his trousers. His red t-shirt has been hung over the root of a nearby tree. The text says: ‘I remember when there used to be sugar beet and barley fields and all that sort of stuff.’
In the following image we see the young man’s bare back as he looks across a field of crops in the pink light of the early morning. The text above says: ‘And the last field, the one nearest to the A-frame bridge, they used to have wheat.’
The third picture on the bottom line shows the young man now immersed up to his waist in a river whose waters reflect the pink sky of the morning. The young man looks to his right as a steam train thunders across a metal A Frame bridge, the smoke billowing from its funnel capturing the pinks and yellows of the sky. Above, the text reads: ‘…And the train ran down Marriott’s way.’
In the last picture, we return to a close up of Richard on his mobility scooter and Tiitu walking close beside him. The final text reads: ‘Tears welled up in my eyes when I heard that the Norfolk Wildlife Trust was buying the place.’
This was one of Tiitu Takalo’s artworks for On Our Doorsteps. She created two other artworks with people from the community around Sweet Briar Marshes. A writer, Zakiya Mackenzie, has also created three new text-based artworks for billboards on the reserve.
The project was developed and produced by We Live Here, in collaboration with the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. It is funded by Arts Council England and the Finnish Institute.