Dash cam landscapes - 2

I was surprised when I discovered the dashboard camera pictures. I could not believe that these fleeting moments were recorded. I could not believe that these moments of tragedy had been fixed and then shared in public.

It is terrifying that I will never know the aftermath of these accidents. I don't know if they were deadly, if people were wounded or if they just caused material damage. We see the moving life before and a still life after. We are shocked by the difference.

This can happen to all of us. It need not be a car accident, it can be any act of fate. We see speed and then we see the end of speed. We see the tumbling, we see the rolling, we see how it comes to rest and then we see the sky. Do we look through living or through dead eyes? Is this the final picture or just a cliffhanger? Why don't we see big letters spelling out: "T H E   E N D" ?

We see a normal situation. Was this normal situation restored or was it been destroyed forever?

We look at a road, somewhere far away, somewhere nowhere. We see the dry giant hogweed and then we see the stalks being mowed down.

Normally we would not care about this place, but now it is special. The place is transformed by spectacle. Would it be worth to come here and investigate? To sit in silence and awe.

Impossible to tell, but in the meantime we can admire the poetry of the situation like a surrealist painting. We stare, think and puzzle.

There is that one tree. It is worth looking at. 

It is like a modern artwork. (Wolfgang Tillmans, Lighter 33, 2007)

The road runs through the landscape and there are strange objects along the route. (SoiL Thornton, So Warm Out, That's A Lot Of Sea Weed Chips, 2014)

Phillips | 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale: London Auction 16 April 2021