Corinthians 13:12 ‘Through a glass darkly’

The Claude glass altered scenery so it conformed to accepted ideas of classical beauty as in a painting by Claude. It was a mechanical device that imposed an idea of harmony by closing out what was really there. An imposition on the physical actuality of a place to try and create a warm glow of spirituality, it only created poor shadows of the real. The real beauty of a place resides in its many layered patterns; with the lack of symmetry, the remainders, the dead ends and patina accrued over time.

A meditation on the ceramic and glass waste on the Medway littoral near Stoke on the Isle of Grain.