'Brutalist Premolition' is a high definition video, duration 8 minutes; installation, dimensions variable and performance, duration 40 minutes. 'Brutalist Premolition' is set within an apartment on the sprawling Robin Hood Gardens Estate in East London, a key example of post-war New Brutalist architecture intended as a utopian form of large-scale social housing (designed by Alison and Peter Smithson). The film explores multiple layers of representation and performance, from the introduction of professional soap-opera actors to the everyday reality of a family, long term residents on the estate.

BRUTALIST PREMOLITION, the video projection and installation, was first shown as a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in October 2008 as part of ‘Nought to Sixty’ - “… a programme of exhibitions and events presenting solo projects by sixty emerging British- and Irish-based artists at the ICA from 5 May to 2 November 2008, over which period new events were staged every week, building up a multi-faceted portrait of the contemporary art scene in Britain and Ireland,” curators Mark Sladen and Richard Birkett.

METHODOLOGY:
The film explores multiple layers of performance from the highly professionalised to the everyday reality of a family. The film sees the introduction of two asian actors from the British ‘soap’ series EastEnders into the family unit, they perform intensive melodramatic script fragments from their past acting repertoire. In effect, the hyper-professionalism of the actors is seen against the relatively banal underplaying of the family. As the work progresses the actors presence takes over the apartment as the family significantly fall into background extras. The installation is based on the actual apartment mentioned above, using its exact dimensions to replicate and implicate the space in which the film takes place. The performance saw the same two EastEnders actors incorporated into the installation, a now theatricalised version of its origin. Their script and actions were reconfigurations of the dialogue from both the production of and the final film.

DISSEMINATION:
BRUTALIST PREMOLITION commissioned by MEDIA ART BATH (MAB), with production funding from MAB and a HENRY MOORE FOUNDATION award, with additional exhibition funding from the ICA.

BRUTALIST PREMOLITION, the video projection and installation, was shown as a solo exhibition at the INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS in October 2008 as part of ‘Nought to Sixty’, curated by MARK SLADEN and RICHARD BIRKETT.

Publication: Nought to Sixty, Richard Birkett (editor), Institute of Contemporary Art, London. ISBN – 1-9003005-9-1
www.ica.org.uk

BRUTALIST PREMOLITION was presented in a solo context at ARNOLFINI Bristol on 4 November 2008 as video projection, installation and unique live performance. MAB produced a limited edition booklet BRUTALIST PREMOLITION to coincide with the commission, which included an essay on the work by Bridget Crone. This was launched at Arnolfini and distributed by MAB.
www.arnolfini.org.uk

BRUTALIST PREMOLITION is included in the publication and international group exhibition ‘AU LION, UNE ILE!’ curated by Marie Canet and Vanessa Desclaux. FONDATION RICARD, Paris from 10 January to 11 February 2012 and MUSÉE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN DE BORDEAUX, BORDEAUX, France. The artists include Louis Benassi; Marcel Broadhaers; Marc Camille Chaimowicz; Ian Hamilton Finley; Susan Hiller; Bethan Huws; Ian Kiaer; Uriel Orlow; Amilia Pica; Gail Pickering and Jessica Warboys.

The publication ‘AU LION, UNE ILE!’ was launched on 9th January 2012 at FONDATION RICARD, Paris. ISBN 978-2-84066-503-8

BRUTALIST PREMOLITION has been included in screenings at PICTURE THIS, Bristol, 2011 and will be shown in Melbourne, Australia in 2012.

BRUTALIST PREMOLITION is included in 'The Sensible Stage: Staging and the Moving Image' Ed. Bridget Crone. Published by Picture This, Bristol, 2012. ISBN: 9780955496127

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/6943