"Please Believe These Days Will Pass" is a nationwide art project created by a British artist called March Titchner. Posters have appeared in ten British cities - sending out a message of hope in these trying times. Throughout the pandemic, on my weekly trip to our local "Lidl" supermarket, I have passed an advertising display board with six of Mark Titchner's posters on it. Each time I have driven down Broadfield Road I have thought - "Next time I will remember to bring my camera".
This week I remembered the camera though it was late when I parked Clint at the kerbside. and the light was fading.
But anyway here it is. That message of unity and hope. Given what has been happening in America since the killing of George Floyd, it is a a message that might as easily be applied to the hurt, despair and anger that decent American citizens are now feeling. Not just for COVID 19.
These days will pass but will we learn from them?
ReplyDeleteProbably not.
DeleteSomeone put that on my blog comments, some time back. It's the outcome that concerns me.
ReplyDeleteHow will the land lie in a year, two years? No one can say.
DeleteAs these days get ever more incredibly difficult and strange, unbelievable and inevitable, we can only look over our shoulders constantly to see what is gaining on us now.
ReplyDeleteAs Trump said, there will be "vicious dogs".
DeleteI usually feel like rolling my eyes at public displays with that kind of sentiment, but lately I find myself more likely to tear up over them. I think that's a measure of how stressful the bad news in the world is right now. If I can be made to cry over a poster, there's something major going on in the world. And indeed, the pandemic and the heartbreak in the US right now are major. We are in uncharted waters.
ReplyDeleteI share your outlook Jenny.
DeleteThank you for the kind words. I thought the pandemic was bad, silly me. Of course the pandemic is bad but rolled up with everything else going on I am at such a loss. Our city is now in the fifth night of riots and burning and we are actually better off than some of the now over 100 cities where this is happening. I tend to agree with Jenny - we are in unchartered waters.
ReplyDeleteAs Buzz Lightyear said... "To Infinity and Beyond"! Uncharted indeed.
DeleteIt could be worth your while attempting to release one of those posters from its wall. It might be worth a fortune (£10) in a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteEncouraging vandalism Cro? Mmm...if I see the posters flapping, I might give one of them a helping hand!
DeleteI can't stand that saying. It's so trite. Anything will "pass". Unless you are wiped out by it.
ReplyDeleteStrange when you think about it, YP: On one hand we are encouraged to "live in the moment"; then - when things become uncomfortable - we are supposed to look to the future. The future being the cradle, indeed the very definition, of hope. And hope is good. Where would we be without it? Yet, the future doesn't make the NOW better. The Now is NOW (see above). Reminds me of tooth ache. Is there any worse? You hop about wishing you were dead. That's the NOW. Your father taking you to the dentist will be as SOON (on a Saturday morning) as he gets dressed (true story - I was ten). An hour LATER yes, indeed, what do you know, the ache had PASSED. Who'd have sunk it?
Anyway, good to see you back. Was a bit worried about your unusual two day break from posting. Had visions of Clint having had it, made off and leaving you out there in the wilderness on some moor.
U
Thanks for your reflections Ursula - as ever - independent and forthright. I feel that the artist may have intended a degree of irony by repeating the message over and over again in different places. It is as if we are being invited to dissect it rather than simply accept it.
DeleteP.S. I have toothache but the dentists have been told to lock their doors.
Is this an exception from your 19 May 2020 post? I'm an optimist. Of course these days will pass. I do wonder nowadays what will replace them. What happened to the saying "These are the Good Old Days".
ReplyDelete"Exception to" Apologies for my sloppy grammar.
ReplyDeleteThere is a sense of platitudinous advice here but there may also be an element of deliberate irony on the part of the artist. I was just happy to see that Sheffield had been included in the project.
DeleteYes, of course they will pass, and we all know it. My interpretation of it is that between the lines, we are to read "Please believe there will be better days, once this has passed."
ReplyDeleteAnd hasn't it always been like that throughout history? Bad - and good! - times eventually passing, making their way into the next period of bad or good days, depending on who you were and where you lived?
But in the middle of crises, it is easy for people to forget - to be overwhelmed by the moment.
DeleteTalk about stating the obvious.
ReplyDeleteI guess you are right Queen of Mean.
DeletePBTDWP = placed by the Department of Work and Pensions. Your furlough holiday will not last forever and your pensions will be cut to pay for it all.
ReplyDeleteDuring this devastating pandemic I have sometimes wondered if our governments will be able to keep their pension "promises" to retired citizens like ourselves.
DeleteFree Beer Tomorrow. That's a pub sign that never happens.
ReplyDeleteI think it's good to believe and be optimistic.
You always seem like a sunny human Dave.
DeleteNot really YP. My pint glass is half empty never half full.
DeleteMaybe you need a half pint glass then.
DeleteAnother version of Keep Calm And Carry On?
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! You are right JayCee. A modern take on it.
DeleteI saw a Mark Titchener in Iceland some years ago that used the words 'This world isn't working', and find the way he lifts the belief systems and language that inform our society - be they cultural, religious or political - and tips them on their heads to convey this sense of irony extremely interesting. In many ways, he is doing exactly what you were doing in your earlier post on motivational quotes. In Sheffield, where the figures affected still are so overwhelmingly high, it is going to resonate differently than in another city where the numbers are now much lower as the spread of Covid has moved up the country, and will evolve as people's own experience changes. (For anyone who isn't familiar with how the project started, this is an interesting but, I suspect rather naive, perspective from the artist himself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=mySr5OuKuqk&feature=emb_logo ).
ReplyDeleteThank you for that informative link Elizabeth.
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