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'Memorial to St Ebbe's'

"Former residents of St Ebbe’s have kept Kelly’s directories as a reminder of their community, which was dismantled by enforced migration to the suburbs when the area was demolished in the 1960s. Ruth Waddle, a volunteer who works with the archive at the Oxford Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre in St Ebbe’s, shared her analysis of directory records with artist Rachel Barbaresi, showing how these pages reveal different phases of the transition from a thriving community to vacant houses and demolitions. With few physical structures to hint at the former life and community of St Ebbe’s, these disposable transitory documents have a new significance, meticulously recording every house, family name and business in the area. Memorial to St Ebbe’s makes visible the records in Kelly’s directories at two yearly intervals from 1958 to 1972."

From the Future Knowledge exhibition notes, Modern Art Oxford, 2017

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