Children's Games, Heygate Estate

2002
Lewis, Mark
In this work Mark Lewis highlights the gap between utopian visions and everyday realities. The camera glides around a complex network of empty walkways in South London’s soon-to-be-demolished Heygate Estate, with the seamless movement of a computer game. Every detail is precisely planned and produced, from the perfect spring weather to the child actors playing in communal spaces. We are forcefully drawn into the image as the camera glides through the estate’s narrow paths, creating a metaphor for the linear nature of film itself, always moving on. Through this travelling motion, the architecture of the Heygate Estate is animated as a constant stream of images and information, highlighting how we, as viewers, understand the world around us, and what impact it can have on us.
  • Artwork Details: running time: 6 minutes 21seconds
  • Edition: 1 of 3
  • Material description: 35mm film [transferred to DVD] 9.4.14: the film has recently been scanned, therefore we can provide Apple Pro Res 4444 and 422 files to update the collection and there would be no need to make an exhibition copy of the film (Pro Res 422 is the playable file).
  • Credit line: © the artist. Commissioned by Film & Video Umbrella, London in collaboration with Rooseum, Malmo and Aslamanca Art Centre.
  • Theme:
  • Medium: Film and Audio Visual
  • Accession number: ACC24/2006

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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

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