Materials: Sound, cement fibre board, tape, Letraset, printed ABS, light.
Dimensions: 760mm x 760mm x 1170 mm.
Sound duration: 16 minutes. Click for extract.
Digital modelling by Matt Hynam.
Brutal Object constructs a narrative of multiple protagonists, consisting of buildings, characters and objects. The work engages with three different architectural settings: A Brutalist tower (in the process of being stripped); a conserved Tudor museum; a contemporary dwelling.
The recorded voice within the narrative navigates the physicality of each setting through the dismantlement, relocation and repurposing of objects and matter that occurs as a result of demolition, salvage and conservation of the city fabric. The value system of each setting is revealed as the construction and deconstruction of their histories is staged and performed within a fourth setting. The fourth setting, a space apart, is characterised by sound, light, text and a three dimensional element. A geometric structure and its shadow-lines stage the protagonists from the narrative. Scaleless and cut loose in time and space, the form and its shadow are both devised from the inter-relations of the protagonists and offer up a spatial narrative structure through which the protagonists move.