The Triumph Of Modernity Over The Forces Of Dereliction

This “Wall Painting” takes demolished sections of the Thamesmead as it’s source material and subject matter, in this case one of the external staircases leading up to a concrete walkway and flying bridge. It plays with the formal, abstract qualities of painting using hyper-real elements of 2 different concrete surfaces (the exposed Norwegian white granite aggregate concrete and grey shutter boarded concrete). The midcentury blue colour is taken from Le Corbusier’s 63 Architectural Colours and the scale is firmly rooted in the Modernist architectural tradition – the dimensions are all according to Le Corbusier’s Modulor Rule.

The Green painted element, added during the Covid-19 pandemic, is a riff on the 1980’s Thamesmead logo that was designed to include the park and water features of the housing scheme. My reworking of the trope (in Grenfell Tower Green) is suggestive of something altogether sharper and virus-like. The hard black edges are redolent of graffiti – the ultimate urban lexicon.