Reflection

I was really drawn to the colours of the poverty and bomb maps and wanted to incorporate them into my pieces somehow. I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to create paintings inspired by Keith Coventry's estate paintings. Here, I have painted the plan view of various estates in Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham and have looked to the poverty and bomb maps to inform what colour/s they should be painted. This helps to reveal the history their plot of lands. As seen, all the sites of the estates were either historically very low income areas ranging from black - lowest class, extreme poverty - to purple - mixed class and income; or they were areas where the buildings were heavily bombed and damaged during the war and in their place these council houses were built.

Linking to the idea of lived and used space and unused, blank space explored in Coventry's paintings I discussed in my research, I have also only depicted the buildings in the estate, and not the green spaces. I rarely see anyone using the green spaces available when I walk past council estates in my area, and so I somewhat agree with Jane Jacob's claim that these spaces are an unrealistic idea of public space and are not viable, therefore no more than blank, dead space.However, in the painting of Cheltenham Estate, home to Trellick Tower, I did decide to include the canal that runs close behind it. I'm not sure why I chose to include this, and only this, extra element - perhaps because I have often walked along this part of the canal and have looked up at the tower looming above therefore have a personal connection to the space.

This idea of space and a connection to it is intriguing. I do not live in council/social housing and have only experienced these spaces through friends who live in them and by walking past on the street. Nor do I live in particularly wealthy, architecturally beautiful housing. Therefore this project is very much being developed from the perspective of me looking in and observing from the outside rather than from the point of view of a resident of one of these spaces, much like that of Michael Cox's work. My personal connection to and understanding of these spaces is quite limited and so how I present these spaces and buildings may be very different to someone who actually lives in them. I think that a very striking way this is shown is through the lack of figures and people that populate these spaces in my work so far.

I like these pieces because they reconstruct and reimagine the poverty and bomb maps, adding a contemporary spin and context. Despite these buildings being presented as pieces of art, they still also functions as maps, tracking the historical social, economic and geographical contexts of these areas.

The simple shapes and bursts of colour against the white background is very visually impactful and pleasing to the eye and if I were to display these they would be against a white background and organised in rows. I love the overall shape the cluster of buildings that make up the estates create. I find that the eye is led on a little journey when viewing these pieces because of this - one's eye is directed from one corner to the other or from the top of the paper to the bottom, adding to the interest of these pieces. As stated previously, I want to explore the aesthetics of council/social housing and portray them in a more positive light which these pieces have succeeded in. These run down and neglected buildings have been transformed into beautiful artworks and have also been given a new important role of mapping history.

Without context given, it is not particularly clear that these are plan views of estates which one could argue removes the potential negative bias the viewer may have towards council estates, thus further helping to restore the reputation of these places as being desirable and respected places to live.

There is potential to expand this series, instead painting the plan view of the wealthier houses in the area. This could help highlight the architectural difference and inequality between the housing belonging to the two demographics, with one living amongst large populations with little private space and the other living in private, individual residences with significantly more space. However, as maps this series would be less visually interesting as there would only be two colours: red for the middle-class/ well-to-do; yellow for the upper classes.

04/04/2021

Final Major Project

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