Constantine Gras

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Art For Silchester (2018-20)

Silchester Residents Association invited me back to work as artist in residence on the estate in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. For two years I ran art workshops for over 100 participants that included drawings, ceramics, creative writing, and book making.
We held an exhibition for Estate Open Weekend on 30 June and 31 July 2018.

And with a Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea arts grant, we have just published a project book.
It can be viewed here: Art For Silchester book.

Monica and Aaliyah, participants in the project:
We have really enjoyed attending the sessions. Not only has it opened up our creative side, that I didn’t realise I had, but it also brought us together; so many people from the local area, that I would not have met otherwise. Out of the tragedy of Grenfell we have been united through clay. And our work represents it.

www.artforsilchester.com

Washing Dirty Linen In Public (2019)

A performance-based guided walk and exhibition about women's labour and activism in North Kensington.
Telling the story of laundresses and wash houses from 1860-1970.
Commissioned by Serpentine Galleries as part of Hito Steyerl's Power Plants exhibition.
A 40 minute film of the performance will be screened at Portobello Film Festival 2019.
Blog post: To marry an ironer is as good as a fortune!

Flora Cornish: I loved the walk and performances and social history and artworks yesterday!
After building the sense of layers of history and continuity, to find there were women
in the room from the laundry campaign and hear from them was the icing on the cake!

The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle (2017)

An Arts Council England funded projected about a Victorian actress and the 147 year old Coronet theatre in the Elephant and Castle. I researched and devised the project with John Whelan. We staged a play at the Coronet with People's Company and produced an art exhibition.

Charlene: "The creative imagination of all involved in this wonderful project for the Coronet, inspired within me the need to petition and advocate for those without a voice. The work beautifully encapsulates a multilateral web of issues from mental health to the loss of our rich history as regeneration rises up to consume the memories of old."

www.elephantmelodrama.com

Open Estate Weekend Art Event (2016)

The Open Garden estate weekend was organised by Silchester Residents Association and Constantine Gras. It had funding and support from Architects for Social Housing, RBKC council and InTRANSIT festival of arts.
The event took place on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 JUNE 2016. The aim was to celebrate community and cultural life, architecture and garden spaces at both Silchester and Lancaster West estate. The former estate is being considered for regeneration by RBKC council.
Centre stage was a 1:100 scale model of Silchester estate made by Michael Jardine, Nahid Ashby and Constantine Gras. This was a wonderful way of visualising the estate and the potential impacts of regeneration.
In addition to art made by residents, we had a film programme and guided walks.

Sandra Crisp: "Really interesting tour of local hidden gardens and architecture."
Simon Elmer: "Wonderful exhibition. Great art work with children giving voice to a strong community."

Lancaster West Estate Artist in Residence (2015-16)

This was an 8 month residency on Lancaster West estate working with children in making 4 large scale drawings. I also made a film about life on the estate, how residents are concerned about regeneration and their hopes for the future.

Fatima Al Hajar, resident of Lancaster West estate:
"It is a very good idea to let the children of Lancaster West estate draw the place where they live and how they see it. Elias, Mum and Samar enjoyed drawing buildings very much. "

Live, laugh, love. Drawing made by children of Lancaster West estate and Constantine Gras. Oil pastels. 94x44 inches. 2015.

Leo The Last film & ceramic event (2014)

Leo The Last is a 1970 film directed by John Boorman and using street locations in North Kensington. It is a film that resonated with my V&A Museum residency: community issues, housing, architecture, film-making.

This project was funded by the V&A Museum and RBKC City Living, Local Life ward fund. It was also supported by Park Circus who supplied a 35mm print of the film that was screened for local residents at the Gate Cinema, Notting Hill on the 1st Feb 2015. On the same day, 10 residents from the Silchester Estate came down to the V&A Museum to take part in a ceramic workshop. This was facilitated by Matthew Raw, ceramic artist in residence at the museum. We made clay houses based on the set design for the film and these were subsequently displayed at the V&A Museum.

Review
Steph Perkin, Resident Liaison Officer at More West and Silchester Estate:
"It was exciting to have the Gate Cinema to ourselves on a Sunday morning (and not have to pay to get in!) and the audience was a really diverse mix of different cultures and backgrounds. I really enjoyed the film, I thought it was very much of its time with the surreal camerawork and soundtrack. The story was heartwarming and shocking at the same time with a bit of idealism thrown in. It was a reminder of just how difficult life could be in this area, in the not too distant past. Going to the V&A for the ceramic workshop was a real privilege too. It cemented (pun intended!) friendships within our group and was lovely to spend an afternoon totally absorbed in making clay houses with neighbours."

Vision of home (2015)

V&A Museum Learning Centre 6-8th Feb 2015
Curated display of films and art work by the V&A Museum Community Artist in Residence. Constantine was the first Community Artist at the V&A and uniquely embedded as part of a new housing development called More West.
During a seven month residency, Constantine staged themed events at his studio on Silchester Estate and at the V&A. He shared his multi-media skills with local residents, community groups and nursery children. All his collaborative work had the aim of engaging residents and participants in themes connected with history, housing, architecture, social change and regeneration. He posed the question: what is home, community and art?
Throughout his residency, Constantine has used two art works as inspiration: Vision of Beatrice and Leo The Last. Although they span different centuries and media, they both have an artistic, geographical and social connection with North Kensington.
The Vision of Beatrice is a stain glass designed by Nathaniel Westlake in 1863 and is in the collection of the V&A Museum. It illustrates a scene from Dante’s Divine Comedy and the passage from purgatory to paradise. Nathaniel Westlake had a house built for him in 1863 and this is currently located at Whitchurch Street, directly opposite Testerton Walk on the Lancaster West Estate.
In 1969, before the Lancaster West estate was built, Testerton Street was the location for the filming of Leo The Last. It memorably used this street as part of its monochrome set design. The story concerns an aristocratic landlord who moves into a slum area of Notting Hill and is radicalised by his interaction with the local Afro-Caribbean community. Constantine’s community art was used much like Leo’s telescope in the film; to focus a lens on the world around him and to meditate on housing and community relations.

"One of the great things about the artist-in-residency at Shalfleet Drive was the way the events and work that Constantine and residents did brought the community together. Constantine reached out to a huge range of disparate groups and across generations, all of whom came together for the final exhibition. People also uncovered artistic talents in themselves that they had no idea they possessed. Constantine's work also encouraged people to think deeply about what the area means to them and to develop an enhanced sense of belonging to their local place."
Cllr Judith Blakeman

West Ten Fade Out (2013)

A programme of 11 films curated by Constantine Gras and screened at the Louise Blouin Foundation as part of the Portobello Film Festival, 2013. Films by Sandra Crisp, Dee Harding, Constantine Gras, Colin Legge, Pat Naldi, NewRedHouse, Helen Petts, RandL and Rickster.

Exploring the urban environment of West London from buried waterway to elevated road, carnivalesque collage to historical reflection.

Programme kindly supported by RBKC Arts, Lousie Blouin Foundation and Portobello Film Festival.

Selected Programme online.

Reviews
Robert Atkinson: 'You all manage to make us look at the familiar in a different light."

Lisa Thompson: "Excellent selections of films. Wonderful to meet and talk with some of the artists."

Home Sweet Home (2014)

A programme of short films about post-war housing screened at Silchester Estate and the V&A Museum in November 2014. Curated by Constantine Gras, V&A Museum Community Artist in Residence.
The programme running time is 1 hour.

Films and images kindly sourced from:
British Council, London Metropolitan Archives,
National Archives Public Information Films,
RBKC Local Studies and Archive, Wellcome Collection, Ad* access Digital Collection,
D'Arcy Macius Benton & Bowles Records,
John W. Hartman Centre for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History,
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Nahid Ashby, Gloucester Court Reminiscence Group, Residents of Silchester Estate and Dee Harding.

Reviews
Derek White, resident of Silchester Estate:
"A great collage of life in the area and wider. Very thought provoking."

Charlotte Moore, Project Manager - Modernising Older People's Accommodation with Care at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea:
"Fantastic films capturing the changing environment in Latimer. Well done."

Glasgow and Edinburgh
Built environment from Gulf War to Harry Potter (2012)

This was a photographic and audio online exhibition for Photomonth 2012.
A gritty, silver nitrate, photographic study of how Scotland builds its great cities and the challenges involved in home ownership, health, security and identity. The period covered is from the outbreak of the Gulf War to the publication of the last Harry Potter book, 2003-2007.
The soundscape used in this exhibition was derived primarily from musicians based in Glasgow. Tracks kindly reproduced by Josh Goldsmith, Danny Robinson, Alasdair Pettinger, Bash Nova, Gervais Harry and Havard Holm Giske.

Latymer Mapping Project
(2012-13)

A community mapping project by group+work and Constantine Gras in collaboration with North Kensington residents . The map aims to present a collective view of the area, looking at the impact of regeneration, social issues such as community and housing, as well as personal anecdotes and experiences.

Link to Project website

Vinyl Replay (2011)

Vinyl Replay consists of 163 photos. In the studio and on location, long photographic exposures, primarily with a hand-held camera, were used as a means of reinterpreting my dusty and scratched record collection. I want to reinvoke the space and time of this analogue existence: early days of collective family listening; rushing down to Woolworth's with pocket money to buy singles; the flowering of sexual identity in post-punk teens; and the civil disobedience against Thatcherite Britain.
The film and a selection of photographs were exhibited at Photo month 2011, East London International Photography Festival.

You can read an interview with Constantine Gras at the Streaming Festival.

In Mercy For A Trespass (2012)

In Mercy For A Trespass / Ea Eard (2012) was a Cultural Olympiad project for the London borough of Hillingdon. It involved schools and community groups making over 200 clay pots and vessels for an installation that captured rainwater on a medieval motte in Ruislip.
This project was devised by Elinor Brass, Emily Orley and Constantine Gras (project manager).
Clay making workshops were run by Fabiola Knowles. The final design for the installation was built by Georgia Wisbey.

Pedal Power (2009)

A celebration of cycling in Oxfordshire: past, present and imagined future.
Museum of Oxford 24 July - 17 October 2009
Curated by Constantine Gras

Cycle and photographic technologies were fruits of the Victorian period, both capable of causing excitement and derision in equal measure. Though initially restricted to certain social classes, they were destined to have a profound impact effecting notions of freedom and self image.
This exhibition will focus on the 1870’s - 1900’s, when cycling and photography were cutting edge technologies, the result of numerous inventors and small scale manufacturers.

Kate Toomey, Museum & Heritage Community Learning Officer at Museum of Oxford & Town Hall: "Thank you for the wonderful display that was seen by over 16,000 visitors."

Link to BBC Slideshow

Water Works (2010)

Water Works was an arts project in which 8 residents of the London borough of Brent used photography to record their experience of water in a swimming pool, at home and on a visit to a water treatment plant.

Constantine Gras devised this project and lead residents on a unique artistic and environmental journey. This culminated in a gallery installation of residents photo collages which was shown at both BAR gallery and Kew Bridge Steam Museum in 2010.

This project was funded by Brent Council and supported by Thames Water.

Olivia White: "Water Works has enabled me to concentrate on taking photography beyond my regular use of documenting subjects. To practice using my camera as a paint-brush and photographs as my paints."

LIP Queens Park exhibitions (2004-2012)

Through a glass darkly. Digital photograph. 2012.
Displayed at "Every picture is worth a thousand words" exhibition.

Group exhibitions put on by the Queen's Park branch of London Independent Photography (LIP).
Photospeak BAR gallery 2004
Around a mile Dissenter's Gallery 2005
Decisive Movement BAR 2006
Home BAR 2007
Lost and found St Matthew's Church 2008
Every picture is worth a thousand words BAR 2012

Westminster Arts Open, SW1 Gallery
(2008-2010)

Kensal Green Cemetery, fibre base hand print. SW1 Gallery, 2010.

Sold to Mr and Mrs Hunt, patrons of my art, who were digging deep into their cheque book.

Between Heaven and Earth (2002)

Photo collage of The Cemetery Road, 2002.

An exhibition of paintings and photographs, 18 Feb - 16 March 2002
The Artists Gallery, Willesden Green Library Centre, NW10

Artist statement:
In the beginning was the word. But what if that word fails to provide comfort and joy. What can we look for? Perhaps imagery (the act of looking-seeing-believing) can act as a power of revelation. My interest in this exhibition is to take the viewer on a spiritual journey through space and time, real and imagined, via the mediums of paint and film.
Between word and image, heaven and earth
Let us consider the significance of shooting stars and fiery angels.
The erotic fantasy life of clouds.
Plants that are a tad potty.
Butterfly wings that cause a hurricane.
Between our philosophical concepts of heaven and earth,
Much more can be dreamt of.
The centre piece of the exhibition and at journey's end is a road that was built in Kensal Green cemetery in 2001. I have photographically reconstructed this in the gallery.The foundation of the road was made up of rubble from demolished houses and includes human artefacts ranging from a comb to y-fronts. What was once so essential to domesticity, now forms a hidden layer of a road in a cemetery.

Reviews of the exhibition:
Daniel Patino: Very interesting seeing daily objects from a different perspective.
Susan Austin: Congratulations! An exhibition which shows thought and inspiration in equal measure.
Wilber Downer: Avoiding the cliches with some great ideas.

BAR exhibitions (1999-2001)

Displayed at "A passage into the second millennium" exhibition.
Silver gelatin hand print. 2000.

Group exhibitions held at the Artist Gallery,
Brent Artists Register from 1999 to 2001:
Art Month Open  1999
Winter show: The passage 1999
Face Value  2000
A passage into the second millennium 2000
"Space-Time-Continuum" awarded a prize by Honor Clerk of the National Portrait Gallery
Winning Again  2000
Urban Tensions  2001
"Ecstasy" selected for a prize by Martin Levy-Nichols, Hampstead School of Art

Flowers and Feathers (2000)

Bathed Angel, 35mm slide photograph, 1999.
Collection of Stephen Fishwick.

Held at the London head office of Diabetes UK to launch the charity's change of name from British Diabetic Association and the introduction of a new corporate logo, the hummingbird.

Artist statement:
This exhibition is rooted, quite literally, in my family tree: Polish and Greek parents who for political and economic reasons left behind their homelands to settle in England. Although they never returned to their mother land, they transported Polish forests and Greek islands into their adopted country and into my imagination. As a child, they told me the stories of their ancestors and maintained a tradition of oral story telling. These tales were of a predominantly agricultural way of life. Both of my grandfathers were intimately attuned to the rhythms of nature as a forester and farmer respectively. As they told me these "stories", I drew pictures in my mind. What you see in this exhibition are the resulting fruits of my imagination as I reinterpret the mystery and wonder of the natural world. We plant roots, but we still dream of flying.