Something under the surface… something not immediately evident… an undercurrent exists in the city of Madrid that I felt by going on one of those iconic “Red bus tours”, and catching the underground trains and walking through the streets.

Click my artwork below to enlarge it and imagine it printed or really really BIG on a wall in a gallery. Imagine standing back looking at the collage of iconic images I created from Madrid….the bold, bold architecture and evidence of pride and power; and ask yourself what is missing? Ask yourself if there is anything which feels uneasy about what you see. I did.

I asked myself what felt uneasy. I asked myself what felt incongruous. I asked myself what was beneath and beyond the stone. I asked myself what was in the spaces.

I noticed near statues of stone and strength squatted wailing beggars holding out empty paper cups for money, and homeless opening out their cardboard shelters for the night. I noticed beside souvenir stores empty shops with mail abandoned under the cracks in the front door. I noticed beside people walking with cameras slung around their necks, rows of young North African boys displaying bags, and jewellery and hats and wallets on mats with rope tied in four corners in preparation for gathering hastily to run from the police who never came.

This is a city with an undercurrent of poverty and of stress from the Economic crisis not only from global circumstances but from within their own country. Unemployment for unter 25’s is running at 50%. Service stations are closing down across the sprawling city. Roads which were once clogged with traffic are easy to drive through. Toll highways are empty.

Madrid was very intriguing for me as I felt the shadows beneath the strong black stallion and stone monuments.