The SILVERTOWN RESIDENCY, SRISHTI INST, BANGALORE
The project was inspired by a vast industrial complex which operated from the 1870’s to the 1960’s on the banks of the Thames in East London.
The area was severely bombed during the war and for many years after its closure it remained a spectacular ruin, attracting film makers such as Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket) and Michael Radford, (George Orwell’s 1984).
The Silvertown site has now utterly vanished under shopping malls and gated communities and no longer registers on present day maps of the area. It is now a place that exists only in the imagination and in the films and artworks it inspired. The memory of the site and its representations reiterate how multiple stories and histories attach themselves to specific locations over time, re-appearing as the fragments which form our collective memory of the past. Industrial sites and ruins have inspired film makers and artists for generations with their ability to suggest dystopian landscapes and uncertain futures.
This narrative set up the residency for which 18 students from Srishti College in Bangalore to travel to JSW Steelworks (staying on their campus) with visits to the steelworks and to Hampi (Capital of the 15th-16thC Vijayanagar Empire) for a week, returning to bangalore to develop the work into an exhibition over the following month using analogue photographic and sculptural processes.
The extreme contrast between these two locations has inspired students to produce some engaging and original work. After the initial impulse to document everything these two dramatic locations have to offer with photographs, video and sound recordings; more developed and considered work emerged, with varied and original presentations adding new layers of meaning. (See catalogue for full text)
The link below shows the pitch/proposal for the residency, securing the funding from JSW Steelworks
5 page Silvertown