The four young men in the work are aged between seventeen and twenty. They wear domestic temporary
materials including bin liners, tin foil, cling film, news paper and shopping
bags. They are at ease in their strange clothes and decaying
environment and present themselves as confident and dignified without aggression or
threat.
In each photo the young men are placed either in groups, pairs or on
their own. They stare at the camera or far into the distance. Sometimes
the artificial nature of their arrangement suggests that they are a
product (fashion-shoot or boy-band). Running concurrently with the Heygate demolition plans, the UK
press were increasingly portraying young groups of black men standing on urban streets as
threatening gangs. The clear undertones of racist stereotyping reveal ongoing problems within our
society and press rather than presenting the reality for any individual young
men targeted.
The architecture has the typical towering, vast, concrete and grey
features associated with estates. Shot in many different corners and
roads within the complex, the maze of this residential land is also explored.
The spaces are empty except for two occasions when a family pushes a
pram in the far distance and when 2 policemen look at the young men
wearing blue bin liners which seem to have wings.
This
project was made possible thanks to the generous collaboration of all
four models/performers, stylist Debbie Spink and assistant Tyrone Grosvenor.