Dave Peel: remembering the 3 p's

a poem referencing the six benches in the Penny Pocket park (usually referred to as the three p’s. The poem has six verses made up of six lines, and each line containing six syllables. The poem is slightly distorted, with curving and staggering letters that swerve with the crumples in the paper that it is printed on
A monochrome photograph is a landscape image of a single bench, in what looks like a park with waist-height bush bordering some grass, trees with bright white shards that are the leaves, and a paved slope behind. The bench sits on this boundary, between path and park.

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Dave Peel (they/them) grew up in Leeds, and recently returned after eight years in London.

Mainly working under the pseudonym Erik Weisz, Peel’s work is often reflective of their experience of coming from a working class background and aims to invite open conversation about class. They enjoy working with audio-visual art forms and often combine sound compositions with poetry and moving image. Peel has a BA and MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University and has also trained and worked as a barber.

For their PANIC! bursary project, Peel has created an audio-visual response to their local park in Leeds. The title remembering the three p’s refers to the park’s name ‘Penny Pocket Park’, referred to locally as ‘the three p’s’. The project uses the park’s six benches as a starting point, each with their back to the city. Using these sites of solitude and companionship, Peel has created nine photographs, a video and a poem which reflect on the significance of this public outdoor space to the people who regularly use it.

The poem is an ode to the six benches in the park, with six verses made up of six lines, and each line containing six syllables. The video has GIF-like visuals and a composition made by collecting field recordings and their own spoken responses, captured using a variety of analogue and digital techniques. Photographs of the park in black and white have a hyper-real quality, playing with our digital experience of the physical space.

a portrait image of a zoomed in section of a piece of wood. It looks smooth, but with small erosions, chips and many fine vertical lines of the grain. Embedded within this, is what looks like two pin-head like fixtures, possibly bolt-heads, diagonal from one another.
a zoomed in section of a piece of wood, cutting into the frame horizontally. It looks smooth, but with small white bleached erosions and many fine horizontal lines of the grain. Surrounding this is foliage, the elongated leaves partly cover the end of the wooden plank. Blurred buds reach up to the sky, in the background are hazy silhouettes of large trees.
a wide-landscape shot of the park. There are two benches that face away from view. Between them is a city dustbin. The bottom third of the image shows white bleached-out grass, over-exposed with little detail, a rough quality to it.
a monochrome photograph of a landscape image of a single bench, in what looks like a park. The bench borders some grass, and has a city litter bin to the right of it. In the background are trees and bushes with bright white shards that are the leaves, and a paved slope behind in the left of the frame. The bench sits on this boundary, between path and park.
a landscape image of a single bench that sits in front of a waist-height bush that extends across the length of the image. Trees frame the corners of the photograph, with a partly paved slope between them. An overhead powerline structure sits in the distance.
a wide-landscape shot of the park. There are two benches that face towards us, on the edge of a path that runs the length of the image. Between them is a city dustbin. There is a large tree stump in the foreground, and the same partly-paved slope in the background.
a landscape image of a single bench, in what looks like a park. The bench borders some grass that is looks almost bleached white from the camera exposure, The bench sits on this boundary, between path and park. An empty coffee cup lays on the path.
Dave Peel

Discover the other PANIC! bursary artists

This work is presented as part of the PANIC! (Promoting an Artists’ Network in the Crisis) series of bursaries.

Earlier this year, PANIC! awarded a group of artists in Leeds City Region £5,000 and £1,000 bursaries to support the making of a new contemporary visual artwork or project. The bursaries offered space to create a voice and help us think through the new psychological, social and cultural conditions we face today.

You can find the work of artists Abdullah Adekola, Tora Hed, Emily Ryalls and Tammy Tsang here.

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