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Home , Roehampton, Thamesmead

Thamesmead Texas presents: An independent study, the future of artists and architecture? Screening programme, selected by Vanessa Scully 19 October 2019

Thamesmead Texas presents a selection of experimental and documentary films on social housing, gentrification and regeneration from the 1970’s – present day . Selected by artist Vanessa Scully, as part of the series ‘Thamesmead Texas presents: An independent study, the future of artists and architecture? This screening event sits within a new installation entitled ‘Heavy View’ by British Artist Laura Yuile that developed out of Yuile’s consideration of technological and architectural obsolescence. TACO!, 30 Poplar Place, Thamesmead, London SE28 8BA. Saturday 19 October, 7-10pm.

Part One: Meanwhile space in London*, shorts

Katharine Meynell, Kissing (2014), 3:00 mins, digital video John Smith, Dungeness (1987) 3:35 mins, 16mm film William Raban, Cripps at Acme (1981), 5:35 mins, 16mm film Wendy Short, Overtime (2016), 10:09 mins, digital video , Home Truths – Art and Soul (2014), 4:51 mins, digital video Vanessa Scully, No 1 The Starliner v1 (2014), 1:05 mins, 35mm slides and digital video Vanessa Scully, No 1 The Starliner v2 (2014), 1:05 mins, 35mm slides and digital video Vanessa Scully, No 1 The Starliner v3 (2014), 1:05 mins, 35mm slides and digital video John Smith & Jocelyn Pook, Blight (1996), 16 mins, 16mm film

Part Two: A history of social housing in London, feature

Tom Cordell, Utopia London (2010), 82 mins, digital video and archive material Tessa Garland, Here East (2017), 5:42 mins, HD video

Part One: into his thirties) a figure to add to the pantheon of profoundly subversive, wildly misbehaved, and Katharine Meynell, Kissing (2014) perhaps genuinely unhinged twentieth-century artists, alongside Jack Smith, Harry Smith, Kenneth “Made in response to a word drawn from a hat with Anger, Chris Burden, Joe Coleman, and others.” LUX 13 Critical Forum, I kissed the iconic Balfron Jared Rap-fogelVol. XL, No. 4 Tower”.

Wendy Short, Overtime (2016) John Smith, Dungeness (1987) Overtime is a portrait of a place and the community ‘Dungeness’ was originally made for ‘Dungeness: it sustains; a celebration of a microcosm on the The Desert in the Garden’, a multi-media theatre verge of obsolescence. A former shoe factory production directed by Graeme Miller. By selectively located in , Unit 3 was leased from the framing and alternating mono-chrome fields within owner in the 1990s and became a space for artists the Dungeness landscape the film creates a series to live and work until the last ten-ants were evicted of abstract rhythms. Incidentally, and unbeknown to in August 2016. myself until years after filming, ‘Dungeness’ features a guest appearance from Derek Jarman’s then recently acquired Prospect Cottage. Channel 4, Home Truths – Art and Soul (2014)

A series of short films exploring what Home means William Raban, Cripps at Acme (1981) to us in its unique and unusual forms. Series 1/ Ep 18: Can a bunch of young artists lift the spirits of a Cripps at Acme “contains documentation of one of rundown part of East London? his Acme Gallery performances that’s shocking, scary, and hilarious in equal measure, and suggests that Cripps may be (or may have been, had he lived Vanessa Scully, No 1 The Starliner v1-3 (2014) Balfron Tower, Poplar No1 The Starliner (1) will act as a catalyst for the Colville Road, total transformation of E3 to E14, completing the stretch of Tower Hamlets between the banking Finsbury Health Centre, Farringdon district in SE16 to the creative quarter in E2. It is the Lenin Court, WC1 start of an array of hugely important landmark South Bank, SE1 developments which is set to transform the area, as Alton East, such there’s never been a better time to buy in this Alton West, Roehampton location. Original soundtrack from Shivers, David Loughborough Estate, Cronenberg (1975). Road, Whitechapel Towers, Lambeth Cotton Gardens, Lambeth John Smith & Jocelyn Pook, Blight (1996) Brixton Rec, Brixton Alexandra Road, Camden Blight was made in collaboration with the composer Dawson' Heights, Jocelyn Pook. It revolves around the building of the School, Pimlico M11 Link Road in East London, which provoked a Old Kent Road Experiment, long and bitter campaign by local residents to Old Peoples' Housing, Lambeth protect their homes from demolition. The images in the film record some of the changes which occurred in the area over a two-year period, from the We would like to thank all the artists and filmmakers demolition of houses through to the start of whose work is shown in this screening, with special motorway building work. The soundtrack thanks to Ben Cook and Anthony Gartland, LUX; incorporates natural sounds associated with these Mat Jenner, TACO! and Holly Willats, Artlicks. events together with speech fragments taken from recorded conversations with local people. Taking these actualities as its starting point, Blight exploits Further watching and reading: the ambiguities of its material to create its own metaphorical fictions. The emotive power of Jocelyn Bridget Riley, Peter & Peter Townsend, Pook’s music is used in the film to overtly aid this The SPACE Story, (1968-78), 21:21 mins, 16mm invention, investing mundane images with dramatic film https://spacestudios.org.uk/space-story/ significance. SPACE was founded by artists Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley and Peter Townsend in 1968. They recognised the dire need of professional visual Part Two: artists for affordable studios in London and were inspired by a visit to artists’ spaces in New . Tom Cordell, Utopia London (2010) William Raban, 72-82, (2014), 60:00 mins, 16 mm 70 years ago, a group of young idealists came film and digital video https://lux.org.uk/work/72-82 together to construct a new world from the ruins of The first ten years of the groundbreaking London the old. They united around a vision of using science arts organisation Acme are explored through rarely and art to create a city of equal citizens. seen archival film and new interviews.

Tessa Garland, Here East (2017) Charmian & Jack Saward, Living at Thamesmead, 1974, (1974), 25:46 mins, 16 mm film Here East is set on a new housing development in https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/155 East London, using a zoom lens and filmed 99/ undercover the video observes this architectural Semi-fictional account of a couple who live in the space. As the sun fades lights go on, the camera Thamesmead estate. Shows the architecture and witnesses both the empty order of the surrounding landscaping of Thamesmead and everyday lives of area and the activity within the flats. the residents. Includes sequences showing evening social activities, sporting events, and educational and health facilities.

Buildings (in chronological order):

Anna Minton, Big Capital, who is London for? Balfron Tower, Poplar (2017). Penguin Books Prospect Cottage, Dungeness We all need a place to live, but in London – and now Acme Gallery, Covent Garden (formerly a banana much of the UK – housing is a financial asset rather factory) than a basic right. Who is the city for? Unit 3, Arcola Street, Hackney (formerly a shoe factory) Warren House, Bow Thamesmead Texas’ latest strand of artistic Vanessa Scully is an Australian/ Filipino artist and activity explores the theme of interdependency: filmmaker based in London, whose practice between housing developer, studio provider and explores primary questions related to gender, race artists based in Thamesmead. This set of and class. Scully’s work operates in opposition to relationships is ostentatiously aimed at ‘culturally tv programming, genre film and advertising, yet regenerating’ the new town that sits on the outer imitates the visual language of mass media, edge of London’s south eastern edge. Part of Art reworking the dominant narrative to critical end. Licks Weekend 2019: Interdependence. Most recent projects explore her mixed-race heritage as a ‘person of colour’, whilst questioning Special Events & Exhibition Opening Times: the institutional knowledge of ‘the ’, as Friday 18 October - Sunday 20 October, 12–6pm depicted by mass media news and entertainment. Scully graduated with an MA in Experimental Film https://artlicksweekend.com/2019/ from Kingston School and Art in 2019 and a BA in Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Art in 2012. An independent study, the future of artists and architecture?

Thamesmead Texas presents a collaboration between artist James Lander and architectural designer Stephane Chadwick, which engages directly with the built environment and residential community at Thamesmead. Historical records, selected from Lander’s research at archives in , are brought into question when shown alongside findings from fieldwork. What is to be done when the lived experience of residents falls short of successive architects’ plans and aspirations? At Lakeside Centre, Thamesmead, London, SE2 9AN. Until 30 November 2019.

#savetheyellowhouse #retrofit #retrofirst #ubuild #selfbuild

Art Licks Weekend 2019 - Interdependence: https://artlicksweekend.com/2019/event/independe nt-study/

Stephane Chadwick - Director Studio Bark, London. BArch (Hons) DipArch Steph studied at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and London Metropolitan University.

James Lander - Artist, Researcher, Teacher, London James completed a PhD by-practice at the University of the Arts London in 2019.

Thamesmead Texas is a nomadic artist run initiative based in Thamesmead, South-East London. Originally operating from a living room in one of 40 disused flats rented by artists from Peabody via the Bow Arts Trust, we set up to bring together the new community of artists, who moved to Thamesmead in 2018. Anchored by an art bar, we are led by the necessity to be social and organise public exhibitions and events. #keepthamesmeadunique