Page - 11 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

visualize apocalyptic and utopian elements and connect the city to what holds the country hostage at the moment: the narratives around Brexit. Throughout the city, one can encounter a number of abandoned or desolate buildings that remind me – as someone who is and still feels foreign in the city and indeed the country – of the harsh experiences and realities Hull and its people had to en- dure: from a lively port city (and the city’s Streetlife Museum still bears witness to Hull’s vibrant life a century or so ago) to the Hull Blitz to the money the fish- eries industry brought in to its collapse.8 There certainly seems to be an apoca- lyptic dimension to it: not only the confrontation with destruction, decline, and uncertainty, but – in a sense deeply apocalyptic – the hope that at some point things will turn for the better. On my journey through the city, I came across the listed building of the former British Extracting Company silo (fig. 4).9 I found the appearance of the building with its large letters “BRITISH EXTRACTING CO” striking because aesthetically and on the level of language, it visualizes Brexit debates: the building can be taken to stand for the former British Empire that tries to extract itself from its social and political environment. Like the oil extracting process that happened at the site long ago, Brexit, so the promise goes, will extract the cherries and 8 Fishing News 2015. 9 Historic England 2019a; Historic England 2019b. Fig. 5: Skips, Wincolmlee, Hull. Photo: Alexander D. Ornella. Editorial | 11www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 7–14