A legacy for Blackwater – Site A

Funded on
25 May 2022

Marking a community in transition; a local artist gains access to a vacant building on the Church Street Regeneration site, to archive a flat & a community in video & audio.

£6,638 Raised of £6,340

32 Backers

104%

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A legacy for Blackwater – Site A hit its fundraising target!4 years ago

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Boris Stout achieved an MA in film directing from the National Film & Television School after attending Bournemouth & Poole College of Art Design. He has been active in the visual arts ever since. He has shown his photography and screened his films in the UK and abroad.

In 2003 with the support of the Arts Council England and Westminster Arts, he made a project called 'The Estate' which documented the residents of a local tower block comprised of 60 flats. Comprised of 'formal’ photographic portraits of a diverse community (including myself) of residents in their 'identical' front rooms. It was used later as an educational resource for a course that focussed on ‘citizenship & diversity.’

‘A legacy for Blackwater’ is a collaboration between Boris & the acclaimed Korean artist Yuon Kibaik (who has an MFA in sculpture from Seoul National University), which will build on a work made together and shown in Seoul in 2019, ‘Gyonamdong - Yeokchon 40’. Like ‘The Estate’ it is a community relevant project, where with unfettered access, he documented a sweeping regeneration project in which an 'urban village’ of diverse composition in downtown Seoul, was bulldozed to make way for a 'new community'.

Selected images from their recent work are referenced in the 'Video & Images' section.

With different practices but a shared aesthetic, the two artists concluded that Boris’ 'cultural ignorance' was both a curse & a blessing, just as Kibaik’s 'cultural familiarity' was both insightful & inhibiting. Embracing this as a strength, their collaboration took the form of a sort of ‘triangulation’ – a practice perhaps more familiar to surveyors than artists. Using two discreet perceptions to describe the same thing, yielded what they consider a more dimensional response to ‘how where we are, becomes a part of us and how we become a part of where we are’.

When plans for the Church Street regeneration came through Boris’ letterbox (initially the scheme included his home also), it inevitably prompted discussion of a collaboration in the UK, where our roles would be reversed but our techniques would remain intact, as in this case, Kibaik would be the unencumbered 'stranger' and Boris, the 'local'.

Project Owner: Boris Stout The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.