Description
The scene has the frontality of a stage set. At the top, the graffiti-style painted lettering bars the wall with its yellows and reds; below, the screens line up their beer lists, prices packed tight as columns of figures; lower still, dozens of tap handles rise shoulder to shoulder above the white-veined tiling, each bearing its own crest. The symmetry is almost perfect, the industrial pendant lamps punctuate the whole with three warm halos, and not a single human figure disturbs the arrangement. It is this absence that makes the image: a place designed for crowds and noise, captured empty, reveals its true nature as accumulation — abundance as an argument, choice multiplied to the point of vertigo. An American street scene, in short, simply carried through to the other side of the door.
