10 Membranes

An image of the Wetsfield shopping mall in west London. I was so ready to be dismissive of this behemoth, and I am, but it was more impressive than expected. Vast expanses of sheeted, angular glass contrast with undulating, retro futuristic mouldings down endless canyons. Every space is over designed, semantically over determined. It’s like existing in an advert. It’s the apotheosis of capitalism and even if  it is, as I was last night accused, petit bourgeois to admire this, part of me does. Of course, part of me resents the savagely mediocre pile of concrete and plastic slapped into the middle of a delicate urban fabric, stuffed full of bloated and ruthless chain stores catering for mindless herds of “consumers”, salivating wildly over the sole purpose of their sorry, etiolated lives, namely the next purchase. But you know. There is still something remarkable about it.