Mick Hartley

Having obscured the old view from the Greenway down over the Olympic site with a high security fence, the Olympic planners have now opened up the View Tube…

…a partnership project between Leaside Regeneration, London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, the Olympic Delivery Authority and Thames Water. It includes a café, education, arts and information spaces and a viewing platform over the Olympic Park and Stratford City.

A couple of recycled shipping containers painted lime green, it's installed at the Pudding Mill Lane end of that section of the Greenway, with a small and unexciting cafe downstairs and a large classroom and viewing platform upstairs (see Diamond Geezer). For my money the cafe would've been better placed upstairs, but the whole somewhat earnest ethos of the place is focused on education and information. I had to squeeze my turn on the gallery between two large parties of schoolkids.

Here's what you see:

You do get the benefit of a chart showing what'll be what. Clearly that's the main Olympic stadium on the left. The Aquatics Centre-to-be is just peeping up over a mound of dirt over on the right there.

The displays of what it'll look like and what'll happen afterwards are all well done and welcome. There are even a couple of photography displays: one by Gesche Würfel looking back at the old Manor Garden allotments – casualties of the Olympic Park – and one of stills from a short film by Hilary Powell (see The Games, here).

I suppose it's praiseworthy that they should be hosting a display implicitly critical of the whole Olympic development – or at least highlighting the negative aspects: the destruction of the allotments – but…well, this is what you read on a large board next to the pictures:

Gesche Würfel is a visual artist whose practice is primarily photographic. She engages with spaces in transition through genres of urban, landscape and documentary photography. Her interest lies primarily in the notion of place, the relationship humans have to space, the methods employed for changing (in)habitable places, and whether there are different ways of balancing the future of our society. Her photographic work is influenced by her experience as an urban planner, and by having lived in diverse settings, from rural to suburban to urban, across Europe and the United States. These background elements contribute to her site-specific photographic approach, which investigates the politics and aims behind developments.

“Farewell from the Garden Paradise” (2007) depicts the long process of eviction of the Manor Garden Allotments plot holders. The allotments were closed in September 2007 and demolished to construct a footpath for the 2012 Olympic Games. The images present the contrast between the small personal spaces of sheds and the grand spaces of international development. The images also raise questions about the most appropriate approach to regeneration. They problematise the notion of the 2012 Olympics as ‘green’ (as often cited in promotional literature), by documenting the destruction of allotments that were a rare example of sustainably managed green spaces in East London. Furthermore, the photos reveal the complex and nuanced relationships between the plot holders and nature.

Gesche Würfel was born in Bremerhaven in 1976 where she spent her childhood. After having completed her degree in Spatial Planning from the University of Dortmund, Germany, she worked for several years in the field of regeneration and public participation. She then moved to London…..

The relationship humans have to space? Problematise? Perfectly decent photographs (two of them are images 15 and 16 here - click to enlarge) – but isn't "Photographer: Gesche Würfel" enough?