the wall has seen more action than you

place: side of Emily Carr Institue of Art + Design, 1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island (CAN)
mood: alert

Granville Island must not be very flame-retardant, because there are tons of these Y-shaped water hydrants everywhere. And every time I pay a visit to this fire-prone tourist trap, I find myself taking yet another photograph of these curious looking 'FIRE DEPT CONN's. I must go there a lot; I have at least 10 different pictures with these hydrants as my metallic models.

I am pretty sure that the red base of the fire hydrant is supposed to be slightly cooler, closer to Middle Red than Orange, but the early afternoon sunlight has warmed up the hue and brought it to more of an orangey-red. Despite that the minimal splash of blue is less of a Middle Blue and more a lighter shade of desaturated blue, the complementary orange and blue is still clearly apparent. At least, that's what I thought at first glance.

Aside from the eye-catching intensity of both orange hues, I figured that the presence of the complementary pair was the only reason why this picture is so striking. Until I contemplated the more descriptive and all encompassing possibility that it in fact features a split complementary pair. The light blue is teamed up with the two tertiary neighbours of Middle Orange - a cool yellow-orange, albeit that the paint appears to be comprised of more yellow than orange, and a warm orangey-red.

What makes these painted metallic surfaces even more interesting is that they are embossed/textured to create a slightly visible shadow pattern of lines and letters, which add direction and movement to the colourful photograph.

Contrast is introduced with the presence of stark white graffiti on the brightly painted metal walls and the cool grey tones of the wavy aluminum siding at the top.

Of course, leave it to an art school to paint its walls with split complementary colours!