Reflective Encounters

“On board the bus there is a sense of fraternity among the passengers, near-identical to each other in appearance and dressed in matching colours, initially redolent of football fans on another routine pilgrimage to an away game. So too is there a sense of gentle anticipation: one passenger, caught in a brief reverie, even seems to be in a state of sexual arousal. The bus itself, though, appears more apprehensive about the journey, its nose offering a premonition of an impending obstruction. Why is a malformed figure attempting to impede the bus’s progress? 

The answer seems to be in the revealed destination, a place where bodies traditionally congregate in order for their voices to be heard in unison. Shotguns are cocked, but they appear to be only a metaphor: power here is instead joyfully asserted in the simple act of mass assembly under a common purpose. As the music dies out, the grotesque figure once again tries to form a new impediment in the road; the buses and their passengers, we must hope, will continue to persevere against this tenacious opposition.”

— Jonathan Bygraves