Carwash Art

Last weekend was to be honest rather dull. The children were away visiting their father and I was doing jobs that I don't like doing but have to be done. However one asset I have is the ability to make my own fun. And so it was that I ended up in the carwash taking photos.

The day before I had taken my camera out and gone up on to Dunstable Downs to take photos of Pascombe Pit and the Five Knolls. I took so many pictures of Pascombe Pit however that once I got to the Knolls my battery gave out. So the next day I tried again and attempted to take some moody photos of the Knolls. The fact that my elongated shadow looked unsettlingly like a penis gave, I felt, my pictures of the neolithic barrows that extra 'Wicker Man' touch.

As I came towards my car, I saw that it was covered in splatters of mud and a layer of fine yellow dust so I decided to make a trip to the carwash. Carwashes are boring places to be - your radio doesn't work, there's not much to see and you just have to sit it out. Except that it is also rather exciting. I always wonder whether, if I decided to get out, I'd be flayed alive by the brushes or if I'd just emerge beautifully coiffed and sparkling like Penelope Pitstop in 'The Wacky Races'. I'm always a bit worried that the sensor in the dryer will malfunction and it will come crashing through my window and decapitate me and I'm always struck by the thunderous beauty of the brushes as they make their soapy progress along my car.

And yesterday I had my camera so what better than to try and take some photos. What has surprised me is how beautiful some of them are. The droplets of water look like stars while the blue brushes provide a profound yet delicate background. Two people have described it as looking like supernovae or similar in space. I'm tempted now to visit a carwash with different coloured brushes to see what interesting affects I can get.

Finally, I'm always struck by the fact that carwashes are made by a company in Germany called Christ. Surely it's significant that you go into the great glass canopy and have to stay there until you are cleansed when you emerge fresh and ready to face life. Could I be the first person to see the light in a carwash? Not likely but you never know.