FLAT 62 site-specific installation, london 2010
Flat 62 is a unique site-specific installation created in the Tamworth building for the Market Estate Project in March 2010.
The Market Estate Project brought together a temporary community of artists and designers on a site in the process of major regeneration. It housed 75 artists, 66 site-specific projects, 20 vacant flats, and one soon to be demolished 1960's housing estate. With an event open to the public on Saturday 6th March 2010, visitors where able to explore the space just before the demolition bulldozers moved in.
In Flat 62, Alys strips back areas of the abandoned flat to plaster, woodchip or cement, whilst preserving other fragments of the domestic interior. The contrast between the stark cave-like structure of the building and the fragmented areas, which conserve their domestic make-up, are explored throughout the site.
Alys then uses sound, video, objects and text to bring these highlighted sections of the site to life; Offering the viewer moments from its inhabited past. She constructs narrative through the combined media, building a patchwork of scenes with a ghostly presence. Among some of these interventions are: the sound of English television from within a scene of packed boxes, next to a diary torn from the spine of a notebook: a projection of a bed left unmade by its single occupant, seems at first to be a still image but reveals details of movement on the surface of the image: and the sound of a baby being bathed in an abandoned bathroom.
After having spent one month on-site creating automatic writing and finding other ways to engage with the site and its hidden past, Alys invites visitors to explore the flat, encountering these scenes. Offering us the opportunity to piece together her protagonist's story.
Photograph credits: Elle Holland, Alex Springer and Alys Williams.
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