William Titley
Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, UK.
‘Street': Stairway Space - Oct.07
The work is directly informed by a real life situation on Bright Street, Colne in Lancashire, where visual artist William Titley has worked with residents since 2004: documenting the effects of regeneration strategies upon the everyday lives of the community and the decision to demolish their homes.
For this project, William has teamed up with archive artist Patricia Ramsden to explore the act of DIY and how it serves to construct a sense of home. Adopting the role of decorators, the artists’ attempt to familiarise themselves with place as they use woodchip wallpaper and a strong mixture of tea to paint a subtle representation of the street onto the walls. The banal processes and materials become somewhat distilled by their location within the grandeur of the museum building.
The work can be experienced as live performance, offering the audience the opportunity to ask questions as the duo decorate the stairway space. For those who miss the installation process, it will be visually recorded and presented alongside the installation on a video monitor and a projection screen.
The installation/performance contributes to the current discourse surrounding issues of displacement in the face of adversity and the legislation of processes of regeneration and renewal of place.
To watch a short version of the video and be redirected to YouTube please go here.