College of Arms
A while back, I was invited to take part in a discussion on video art at Tate Modern with artist Bruce Yonemoto (the Tate was screening my video Blinky). Looking from the Tate edifice across the Thames, I saw a path straight as the raven flies to St Paul’s Cathedral, so I set out in that direction. I crossed the Millennium Bridge over the Thames then up Peter’s Hill, a pedestrian walkway originally known as St Peter’s Steps. As I walked forward I kept my eyes fixed on the imposing dome of St Paul’s. When I reached the intersection of Peter’s Hill and Queen Victoria Street, I had a strange feeling and the hair on the back of my neck stood up – in my mind I heard a small voice that said, “Wait a minute”.
I looked around and to my left and on the side of a drab brick building I saw a huge sign that read, “College of Arms”. I looked away for a moment and when I looked back the sign had vanished. I thought that I had better investigate the phenomenon, so I turned left on Queen Victoria Street and in about a half a block down on the right, I beheld a U-shaped building that had a courtyard with an ornate iron portcullis gate in the front. On the building over the door, chiselled into the masonry cornice were the words, “College of Arms”. I had to laugh. It was as if when I was walking down the lane with my eyes transfixed on the cathedral dome ahead, my subconscious brain was
seeing the objects in my peripheral vision, so to get my attention it created the hallucination of the large sign to say, “Hey, you’ll want to look at this!”
It perhaps is similar to situations when people under great stress often see a vision of exactly what they need to see at that moment. I had visited the College of Arms in 1983 to do research on heraldry for a painting project – however, I didn’t remember in which part of London the building was located, nor the name of the street it was on.
The College of Arms is the royal heraldic authority for England and the Commonwealth. It is responsible for the granting of new coats of arms, aids genealogical research and is well versed in all minutia relating to the flying of flags. The college was featured in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. I didn’t think it was possible to have an hallucination (with no illicit substances in my system) in broad daylight, but that may explain a lot of things. Jeffrey Vallance
Canoga Park, California
“I looked away for a moment and when I looked back the sign had vanished”