Untitled Condemned (Rachel Point)

Alex Hartley 1963

Summary

A light box (not electrical but relying on natural or surrounding light) behind an etched glass surface supported by an MDF box structure. The lightbox shows a ghostly image of a condemned London residential tower block. The relationship between architecture, sculpture and photography is explored in this work. It is one of a series of large-scale encased photographic images which the artist produced over several years on the theme of tower blocks. Rachel Point was one that stood in Hackney before being demolished. This architectural series indirectly stems from the collapse of a tower block in Newham, east London, in 1968. The panic this generated among modern architects, fearing that every building of the same construction would have to be demolished, proved to be unfounded. However Hartley is interested in the potential this event had for questioning the idea of the rational ordering of modern society. The references in this work are multi-layered. Its monolithic character relates to the presence of modernist architecture in our urban environment, as well as minimalist sculptures of high modernism. A veil of etched glass prevents the viewer from being able to see the image clearly. Instead the image appears ghostly, unstable and ambiguous.

Display Label

Alex Hartley Untitled Condemned (Rachel Point) Built in 1968 Rachel Point was a 22 storey tower block on the Nightingale Estate in Hackney, East London. It was demolished in 2003. Hartley’s work becomes an elegy for a Utopian world perceived to have failed. Purchased through the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme, supported by funds from Arts Council Lottery and Manchester City Galleries’ Corporate Patrons NB The Top Gear Toyota Hilux which appears in the Top Gear studio setup on a displya plilnth was placed on top of teh towerboock during its destruction!