WALK 11: textures

Your Space Or Mine

The eleventh walk with Alisa Oleva in April invited participants to pay attention to the textures and surfaces around them and to explore how we experience the city through touch.

Was the city cold or warm? What materials was it made of? How many textures could be found nearby? Which surfaces did we avoid, and which gave us pleasure? How did we imprint ourselves onto the city, and how did it imprint itself onto us? The walk began at The CarWash in Shoreditch, 1 Quaker Street, London, E1 6SZ.With some arrival exercises before heading out into the streets to make rubbings of surfaces and textures, to map buildings through touch, to walk blindfolded while exploring the streets with our hands, to step on as many different surfaces as possible, and to inventory the imprints and traces all around us.

WALK: our series of free monthly urban art walks, hosted by performance and walking artist Alisa Oleva is part of our Your Space Or Mine project.

14.04.25

Words by BUILDHOLLYWOOD

Make a map of how you got here today.

Walk down the street and make a map of it on a piece of paper as you walk.

Tune in. Trace the contours of something you see in a far distance with your eyes. Repeat that but tracing it with your fingers. Close your eyes and trace a sound in the distance. In pairs, invite your partner to close their eyes and ‘take their finger on a walk’ inviting them to explore the surfaces and textures around. Swap with your partner.

Scan a building with your hand. If you prefer not to touch it you can trace it with a stick. At the end make a map of that building and how it felt on a piece of paper.

As you walk, make an inventory of all the textures and surfaces through rubbings.

On your walk, try to step on as many different surfaces as you can find.

Make an inventory of all the surfaces and textures of this place. Read your list to each other.

Walk holding hands with a stranger. Do not talk.

Become a human camera.

As we walk back, using clay, masking tape and an envelope collect textures and surfaces you encounter to make a collage of this walk at the end.

Credits:
Photos and drawings: Jeffrey Choy – https://jeffreychoy.art/
Photos: Adam Moore

Build Hollywood

Build Hollywood

Your Space Or Mine

WALK 11: textures

14.04.25

Make a map of how you got here today.

Walk down the street and make a map of it on a piece of paper as you walk.

Scan a building with your hand. If you prefer not to touch it you can trace it with a stick. At the end make a map of that building and how it felt on a piece of paper.

As you walk, make an inventory of all the textures and surfaces through rubbings.

On your walk, try to step on as many different surfaces as you can find.

Make an inventory of all the surfaces and textures of this place. Read your list to each other.

Walk holding hands with a stranger. Do not talk.

Become a human camera.

As we walk back, using clay, masking tape and an envelope collect textures and surfaces you encounter to make a collage of this walk at the end.

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Your Space Or Mine

WALK 11: textures

14.04.25

Make a map of how you got here today.

Walk down the street and make a map of it on a piece of paper as you walk.

Scan a building with your hand. If you prefer not to touch it you can trace it with a stick. At the end make a map of that building and how it felt on a piece of paper.

As you walk, make an inventory of all the textures and surfaces through rubbings.

On your walk, try to step on as many different surfaces as you can find.

Make an inventory of all the surfaces and textures of this place. Read your list to each other.

Walk holding hands with a stranger. Do not talk.

Become a human camera.

As we walk back, using clay, masking tape and an envelope collect textures and surfaces you encounter to make a collage of this walk at the end.

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