Investigating this idea further I decided to visit the cities hotspots and not-so-hotspots in an attempt to appreciate them as a visitor or tourist. In doing this I somehow found a deeper meaning and symbolism in the iconography and presence of each structure and space. I fell in love with Newport all over again.
So this film is a sort-of love letter to Newport. It’s about how much I’m inspired by it, but also about how people’s external values and judgements of the city make me feel internally. It’s about how the city often feels stuck between two things, whether it’s loved or loathed, successful or unsuccessful, hot or not-so-hot.
In an attempt to articulate all this I decided to create a heightened reality through which I could exist as this lonely-mobile-tourist-information-centre-man, tired and on the edge of disenfranchisement, but still maintaining pride and a sense of optimism.
In the film you will see some T Shirts I designed early on in my process. I loved making these and am currently designing more. They’re inspired by tourist T Shirts from Florida, but feature interpretations of well known Newport monuments. In creating them I wanted to develop a slightly absurd mythology for the city, creating physical objects that suggest Newport is tourist-worthy. For me these T Shirts are a perfect kind of encapsulation of the overall thesis or idea; that places are magnificent if we make them so.
