Joseph Ford x Sen2 - Impossible Street Art

Limited edition archival pigment photographs printed on Canson Baryta Prestige 340gsm paper. Joseph signs and numbers each piece on the front.

70 x 50cm, Limited Edition of 75

I created this piece with Sen2 (Sandro Figueroa), the renowned New York-based artist. This is one of the strangest places I’ve ever shot - the cooling towers of Willington, a coal-fired power station in the UK, disused since the late 1990s. The five towers reach 300 feet/90m into the sky, and it’s hard to comprehend how big they are until you’re standing at the foot of them. I shot with a remote transmitter so I could sneak into the photograph to give a sense of scale. 

Most of the locations I have photographed are physically in the public domain, and indeed dominate their surroundings through their huge scale, but have restricted access. They are thus imposed on the people living nearby - it is impossible not to see them - but it is impossible to engage with them, use them, or sometimes even approach them. They are often part of the energy infrastructure - arguably the biggest issue of our time - and as such tend to be the subject of controversy. Painting on prints of these huge constructions is a way of reclaiming and engaging with them. 

Information about Impossible Street Art

In this project, my starting point was to imagine if street artists could work on any surface, not restricted by scale, accessibility, safety, or rules. By challenging these conventions, I explore the tensions between artistic expression and the restrictions imposed by social norms and governments. I have photographed landscapes that would be amazing for a street artist to paint, but are impossible to paint for real, because they're too big or inaccessible. 

I have chosen some of my favourite street artists and given them large photographic prints, which they have painted to create original, hand-made artworks with no digital manipulation.

I then re-shoot each artwork on an easel in its original location, creating captivating windows into a parallel universe where street artists have been given free rein.