Evidence Of The Unknown, 2014

A series of 5 digital images, printed on archival pigment paper, 20"x 25" edition of 3.

The photographic series presented here interrogates the often-overlooked peripheral spaces that exist on the margins of urban planning—those residual, interstitial zones that escape the formalized intentions of town planners. These "leftover spaces" represent a form of urban negative capability, areas that are neither explicitly designed nor actively maintained, yet they hold a unique position within the urban fabric. In the context of public space design, these areas pose significant challenges that necessitate a reevaluation of societal values, resource allocation, and the negotiation of cultural and political boundaries.

Drawing inspiration from the work of Abraham Akkerman and Ariela F. Cornfeld, the series delves into the complex dynamics of these spaces as they exist within the "urban mainstream." Unlike deliberately designed green spaces—parks, recreational areas, or urban wildernesses—these leftover spaces emerge organically, often as a result of planning oversights, temporal shifts, or benign neglect. They are not typically accounted for in urban blueprints, yet they become integral to the city's "second ecology," imbuing it with an Aristotelian quality of authenticity. As Akkerman and Cornfeld articulate, these spaces represent a form of "authentication of nature," a defiance against the artificiality of urban environments. They emerge as unplanned, often serendipitous features that challenge Jean-Paul Sartre's notion of "deliberate urban greening" as a form of fraudulence.

These peripheral spaces, often adjacent to urban centers or major arteries, are habitually encountered yet frequently dismissed as trivial or insignificant. However, their very existence speaks to the inherent tensions between the human impulse to tame nature and the resilience of natural processes within the urban context. They serve as liminal zones that capture the dialectics of power, control, and resistance, thereby offering a nuanced lens through which to examine the complexities of urban ecology and spatial politics.