Abstract art photographs of torn signage are limited in that they simply nab a language that painters had to figure out and create from nothing. But anyway. I glimpsed this decrepit billboard while on a bus ride over at the coast. It was for a fraction of a second and my instantaneous reading was wow! largely based on shapes and scale. There was something animalistic, savage going on. I won't be more specific as I'm not sure my reading holds up very well in hindsight, but it's still there somewhat, I think.
At the end of the line, having prevaricated too long whether to get off en route, I ran back (in my non-runner fashion) through unfamiliar streets, navigating by shops I could recall, until I turned a corner and was slightly amazed to find I had found it. I haven't managed to get a good picture of it, the light was behind and to one side for one thing. Whatever. And now captured it doesn't have the eye-pop surprise of seeing something for an instant and have it vanish, presumably forever. But the experience is confirmation nonetheless, of that latent contortion of a response that awaits an encounter with a great painting, or, in this case, even something existing somewhat adjacent.
