Tick Tock by Ellie Ness
Underneath the Botanics in Glasgow lies a labyrinth of tunnels from an old railway line closed to the public in the late thirties. Only valiant daredevils ever venture through the narrow gap that segues from city life to this abandoned, dark space – that inky blackness that your phone torch will only be able to illuminate a small sliver of relief in your immediate vicinity. Leaks from the city above have calcified over time to create moist, puddled areas of slippery danger which appear suddenly without warning as you venture further into void.
There’s an honour code amongst taggers: unless you’re declaring war you find your own space, you don’t cover up someone else’s art. And it is art – if a handprint in a cave in Indonesia was the first artist at work forty thousand years ago, then “we wiz here” tags under the city were nothing less than art. Listen up Glasgow School of Art!
Jamie was properly prepared this time. First time he had only had his phone to record the event and his cans of spray paint in his rucksack and it had been hard to find a large space without venturing further than he felt was sensible so he had left a mini version of the tag in his head on one of the drier ramparts holding up the vaulted ceiling just beyond the station platform. This time though, he had added in proper full beam torches and a runner’s head torch. He also had a tripod so his hand were free to complete the tag while capturing steady footage of his creation. Jamie didn’t work like Banksy, he didn’t have cardboard pre-cut templates to spray through to speed up the process. He created on the spot – not primary seven bubble writing of his name enlarged to fit the space, or teenage dick pics for him.
Jamie’s tag, this time, was a girl’s face resting on her hand. Her scarlet lips pursed into a blowaway kiss or a look of surprise and her auburn hair blew outwards and upwards, as if caught in the updraft of a ghost train passing through the tunnel. One of the highlighted tresses curled into the word Jamie.
Afterwards, Jamie examined the video footage. Once speeded up it fitted perfectly into a TikTok upload with retro Art For Art’s Sake as the backing track. He always used that.
As usual, he went viral and this month’s income was assured.
He tagged in Glasgow School of Art again once it had over 100k thumbs up. If only they hadn’t turned down his application, they could have had all this creativity to nurture. By the time he finished this campaign, they would be begging him to become a student – Jamie was sure of it.
Ellie Ness is a retired teacher who enjoys writing for fun.
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