{"id":917,"date":"2019-07-30T10:44:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T09:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allanforresterparker.co.uk\/?page_id=917"},"modified":"2020-04-13T13:18:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T12:18:47","slug":"silvertown-residency","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.allanforresterparker.co.uk\/text\/silvertown-residency\/","title":{"rendered":"Silvertown – Residency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Industrial sites and ruins have inspired film makers and artists for generations with their ability to suggest dystopian landscapes and uncertain futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SILVERTOWN project was inspired by a vast industrial complex which operated from the 1870\u2019s to the 1960\u2019s on the banks of the Thames in East London. As is common in Victorian architecture, the site was littered with architectural features plagiarised from a wide range of styles; Italian cherubs decorated buildings where toxic chemicals such as Naphtha and Toluene were once refined from coal. The early days of the site coincided with the Arts and Crafts movement championed by William Morris whih flourished at this time, motivated partly by a reaction against the rise of industry, and advocating a return to craft and to individual practice. Paradoxically perhaps, the movement was much patronised by the industrial leaders of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The area was severely bombed during the war and for many years after its closure it remained a spectacular ruin, attracting film makers such as Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket) and Michael Radford (George Orwell\u2019s 1984). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Silvertown site has now utterly vanished under shopping malls and gated communities and no longer registers on present day maps of the area. It is now a place that exists only in the imagination and in the films and artworks it inspired. The memory of the site and its representations reiterate how stories and histories of all kinds attach themselves to specific locations over time, re-appearing as the fragments which form our collective memory of the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The complicated exchange between art and commerce has continued down the years and is perhaps echoed in JSW\u2019s generous offer to Srishti students to visit the biggest steelworks in India – interspersed with trips to Hampi. This trip has formed the basis of this current incarnation of the project. The extreme contrast between these two locations has inspired students to produce some engaging and original work. After the initial impulse to document everything these two dramatic locations have to offer with photographs, video and sound recordings; more developed and considered work has emerged, with varied and original presentations adding new layers of meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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