| The opening lines to Public Image’s ‘Flowers of
Romance’ never really meant much until I hit a typical Barcelona summer. Happy, yes;
in distress, double yes. You can’t breathe; your clothes are soaked by the horrendous
humid heat. You can’t escape. On top of that, sudden torrential downpours flatten all
and sundry,s and in one year even drowned a cyclist. Back in 2001, whilst thinking
about an image for issue 25, I remembered John Lydon’s lyrics and came up with a sort
of S&M image to try and explain the pain and pleasure, love/hate, happiness/distress
of a summer in this city. The original was a little bit more graphic and placed in front
of the fountain in the city park – not really an instant Barcelona landmark, so was
then moved to a more contentious one. Mmmm, Columbus… for many an evil beast; for
others a founder and therefore another confliction. Whatever, the Catalans have fought
hard to prove he is of Catalan blood. For me, the street is just around the corner so
reasonably easy to get a photo of - if you dodge the buses and screaming police cars.
Then, when 2002 came round, the idea of repeating Lydon’s lyrics (they appear in
the 'alt' of the image when you run the mouse over it) also propelled the idea of
repeating Chris on his column – and another sort of S&M image. From then on the
images have remained a little sexist, sorry about that, but the idea has now gently
shifted to ‘trying to enjoy a summer in the city’ by turning a rather boring,
noisy avenue into a swimming pool or beach.
M.G.S |
2004
