‘Time is going to wear them away’ Painting

‘What happens,’ Georges Perec questions, “when nothing happens other than the weather, people, cars, and clouds?’. In his recent series, Jack Bidewell attempts to provide an answer to the author’s question. By exhausting his walk to work, he provides a diaristic recording of Perec’s notion of ‘the infra-ordinary’, referring to an everyday which requires an extreme systematic attention to that which one generally does not notice. Elements which do not call attention to themselves, thereby being considered insignificant. ‘What happens when nothing happens, what passes when nothing passes’. Bidewell does not only question the ‘habitual’ but further challenges it by means of absurdity. Thus, the nature of the series lies upon a repetition which on the one hand enables one to remember their journey to work while on the other hand, it can become compulsive and chaotic. As he maps the route to work, he gradually gets lost. The chaotic repetition engenders an environment that becomes unmappable and ultimately, dislocated.