Constantine Gras
  • Gras Art
  • Film
  • Exhibitions
  • Blog
  • About/Contact

In The Studio, We Walk In The Cracks of 1975

18/11/2019

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The Squalor of Wheatstone on Screen, 1975
Pastels, 80 x 57 "
​2019
Picture
The Whole Scheme Represents A 21st Century Slum, 1975
Pastels, 82 x 58 " 
2019


Two drawings from the past or are they storyboards for a future film? I never can quite tell about the journey of an art work and how it might be transposed or riffed upon once it leaves the studio. But what is the backstory? 

Over the past decade, I've had the unique privilege and challenge of working on art projects that have documented the vibrancy, celebrated the architectural history and explored (or exposed) "regeneration" that has impacted on estates in North Kensington.

My mainstay has been Silchester Estate where I found my feet, had a studio flat and made my first deep connection with residents. I thank them for the support and creativity they have shared with me over the years.

The projects at Silchester include: Latymer Mapping Project (2012-13) in collaboration with group+work, V&A Museum Artist in Residence (2014-15) and Art For Silchester (2018-20).

I have also had a "career" defining sojourn at Lancaster West Estate and Grenfell Tower (2015-16). 
​
And this year, I have been welcomed on the Wornington Estate to assist in making a film called The Wornington Word - A People's History of the Wornington Estate as the estate is being completely knocked down and replaced by a new housing development called Portobello Square. 


Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

​I recently came across two archive documents from 1975. 

First up, a newspaper clipping titled The Squalor of Wheatstone on Screen. This has inspired the narrative drawings above that flow down on the left channel. 

"Stark shocking facts of appalling housing degradation and deprivation that is now a way of life for many North Kensington residents has been dramatically illustrated. The scene was a gathering of Wheatstone tenants who were witness to a video recording of the squalor and health hazards that most of them knew only too well. 
A 20-minute documentary revealed the decaying state of the Wheatstone area - infestations of germ-carrying mice, dilapidated ceilings, rotten 'death-trap' flooring and overspill urine running down the walls. 
The screening of the insight into the ghetto land was made by the Wheatstone Residents' Association who borrowed video equipment in a bid to speed up and nudge the Council into redeveloping the area.
This was the aim and purpose of Mrs Leq-Roy's documentary who did not only the production but the interviewing as well; a disturbing but professional chronicle of life in Wheatstone which any T.V. company would have been proud of." 


Secondly, illustrating the right hand channel drawings, we have an RBKC Council Environmental Plan note. This was written at the same time as Mrs Leq-Roy's film is being screened. It conveys the thoughts of the council representatives who are overseeing the Murchison Road Development that will become Wornington Estate. 

"Herewith are a set of drawings for Murchison Road showing the way Chapman Taylor have modified the scheme following Committee's comments. Could I have your obs. please. My own views are that... the whole scheme still represents a 21st century slum."

"Having had the unique opportunity of being able to view a finished block, it should be obvious that it is an architectural disaster and to repeat this form all over North Ken will be a Planning Disaster!" 


It should be noted that in the narrative drawings we have Mrs Leq-Roy filming a mouse-ridden cooker as a "seven-year old girl drug addict - so badly affected by the conditions that she was hooked on sleeping pills" is trying to sleep under a line of damp clothes. 

In the companion image, we have the lead architect of Wornington Estate, Jane Durham (1930-2019), with her vision of the estate, being challenged by the builders and the council.  

This might be a first. Residents make a campaigning film to have their houses demolished and built as part of the estate redevelopment. At the same moment, members of the council are stigmatising the estate being built as an architectural disaster, a slum in the making. Such an irony - only in North Kensington, I hear some locals mutter!

If it still exists, I would really like to track down and screen this film made by residents in 1975. Can anyone help me? 

If successful, this would be the third film I've unearthed from private archives or collections and brought back to the community of North Kensington.

​In 2010, I got permission from John Laing to use excerpts from Western Avenue Extension (1970) in my film, Flood Light and the Laing film about the building of the Westway has now been added to the Westway Development Trust archive. 

In 2019, I contacted Robin Imray, to screen his wonderful short film made in 1974 about the campaign to save the bath and wash house on Silchester Road. This was screened as part of a curated programme at the Portobello Film Festival called Washing Dirty Linen In Public.

We walk in the cracks of archives, buildings, institutions - where stories and films need to be reclaimed!

​
Picture
Picture
2 Comments
Nathan Graham link
2/11/2022 17:23:39

Cell talk interest certain magazine. List enjoy describe answer chance large ability.

Reply
Noah Clark link
14/11/2022 23:16:17

Consider sport try oil husband government policy paper. Different firm PM baby book American.
Gun represent dinner bad local religious task. Pressure attorney wear. Probably size beat.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    HOME
    ​FILM
    EXHIBITIONS
    BLOG
    ABOUT/CONTACT

    Categories

    All
    Ar
    Architecture
    Art
    Belfast
    Books
    Built Environment
    Ceramic Art
    Chaplin
    Community
    Coronet Theatre
    Dance
    Derek Latham
    Design
    Drawing
    Edinburgh
    Environment
    Europe
    Exhibition
    Films
    Flood Light
    Gate Cinema
    Glasgow
    Grand Union Canal
    Greece
    Grenfell
    Henry James
    History
    Home
    Horror
    Irish
    Jacob Barua
    Kensal Green
    Lancaster West Estate
    Latymer Mapping Project
    Leo The Last
    Melodrama
    Melodramatic Elephant
    Migrant Crisis
    More West
    Music
    Nathaniel Westlake
    Nicholas Ray
    North Kensington
    Notting Hill
    Painting
    Photo Book
    Photography
    Pittsburgh
    Poland
    Portobello Film Festival
    Portrait Of A Lady
    Regeneration
    Sculpture
    Silchester Estate
    Siobhan Davies Dance
    Social Housing
    Soundtrack
    Stain Glass
    St Helen's Festival
    Still Moving
    Theatre
    Therapy
    This That
    This-That
    University Of Warwick
    V&A Museum
    Westway
    W. Eugene Smith

    Archives

    September 2021
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    July 2013
    May 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Gras Art
  • Film
  • Exhibitions
  • Blog
  • About/Contact