Former residents of St Ebbe’s with young people taking part in the iCreative project with Film Oxford and Fusion Arts.
This three part film installation, exhibited at Modern Art Oxford in November 2018, was developed from research into the history of the St Ebbe’s neighbourhood. The films were created by fourteen young people who worked alongside artist, Rachel Barbaresi and film-maker, Nicola Josse. Using archive material from Barbaresi’s project ‘urbansuburban’ they together explored a sense of place, childhood and change in St Ebbe’s through drawing, sculpture and film-making.
Their creative work draws inspiration from writer Brian Aldiss, who knew St Ebbe’s during the turbulent period of the areas’ demolition in the 1960s. He wrote evocatively about the demise of the neighborhood, when the changed from a residential area to slowly become a retail district.
You can see one of the films here.
Still from film installation (Modern Art Oxford, 2018)
Aldis had initially moved here in 1962, lodging at 12 Paradise Square in St Ebbe’s, following the breakdown of his marriage. Here he began to write his renowned novel ‘Greybeard’ the story of a wasteland after an ecological fallout. Despite the bleak scenes of poverty and loss, Brian found hope in the daily ritual of an old man who released his homing pigeons every morning to ‘fly free, to wheel above Paradise Square’.
This message of hope has propelled the creative work of the young film makers taking part in the innovative i-creative arts programme led by Film Oxford and Fusion Arts.
[1] From An exile on Planet Earth; Articles and Reflections by Brian Aldiss, p. 17