CHATEAU RÉCIT No.4: Dust, Dirt

by Alys Morrison

Description

The redevelopment of the Agar Grove Estate is Camden Council’s largest ever regeneration project, involving the demolition of eight blocks built as social housing in 1966, and the construction of 500 new homes at market rates and shared ownership. The phased “decanting” of residents began in 2012 with the entire project set to span over 15 years of demolition, construction and refurbishment. Living on the 3rd floor of the last remaining block from the original Modernist development, photographer Alys Morrison has documented the demolition from her living room window with an urgency bordering on obsession. Her observations, using HD video, medium format photography and her iPhone, are regularly transmitted through Instagram, creating a record of and for a community living at the front line of neighbourhood regeneration, on a long-term building site where whole buildings and ancient trees disappear in a matter of hours.

Dust, Dirt from On Site Works comprises a black and white photo essay with selected plates in full colour. An excerpt from Morrison’s broad and ongoing body of work, it documents the site’s shifting character and its tension with the natural environment, as grass lawns are mowed only to be obliterated by rubble days later. When the estate’s towering plane tree is unceremoniously felled, it is as though Morrison has lost a corroborating eyewitness.

The first 50 copies contain an original 3 x 5” colour print.