Cities around the world are covered in multicolored encoded hieroglyphics and cryptic designations that communicate with only privileged groups of people.
Sidewalk is a continuous investigation of the utilitarian codes, notes, and symbolic markings on streets and sidewalks. These visual poems become the voice of these locations by collecting visual data from the streets, the ground, and the sidewalks and fusing them into an integrated text.
With research, I discovered that these marks were part of an obscure language—the Virginia Underground Utility Marking Standard, a product of the Virginia State Corporation Commission Division of Utility and Railroad Safety. The multi-colored hieroglyphics, including dashes, commas and other punctuation marks had a very specific meaning. This encounter opened my eyes to the possibility of other “hidden” languages embedded in the environment and how they facilitate privileged and possibly covert communication existing just out of our notice.
Photograph from E. Main St. and 17th St. to E. Main St. and 18th St. Richmond, Virginia
Photograph from N. Boulevard and Broad St. Richmond, Virginia
