urbansuburban

Pigeons over Paradise Square is a multi-screen film installation  and is the outcome of a collaborative project inspired by the history of the neighbourhood around Modern Art Oxford; St.Ebbe’s. It has been created by 14 iCreative students who have worked alongside artist Rachel Barbaresi and filmmaker Nicola Josse. Using archive material from Barbaresi’s project urbansuburban they explore ideas about memory, childhood and change in St Ebbe’s through drawing, sculpture and animation.

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Click here to watch one of the projections. 

 

Their creative work draws inspiration from writer Brian Aldiss, who knew St Ebbe’s during the turbulent period of the area’s demolition in the 1960s. He wrote evocatively about the demise of the neighbourhood, as the densely populated residential area made way for new roads, car parks and retail space. 

 

Aldiss initially moved to Oxford in 1962, lodging at 12 Paradise Square in St Ebbe’s. Here he began to write his renowned novel Greybeard, the story of a wasteland after an ecological fallout. Despite the bleak scenes around him, Aldiss found hope in the daily ritual of an elderly man who released his homing pigeons every morning to ‘fly free, to wheel above Paradise Square’.

 

Interwoven with this message of hope are the memories of former residents Gillian and David who were interviewed by the young artists.

 

iCreative artists: Adedolapo Adeleye, Georgina Bell, Hugo Bell, Jamie Bell, Eleanor Budd, Kerensa Budd,
Libby Cobb, Jamie Good, Jeni Gurung, Leoni Hughes, Lenka Kollarova, James Lynn, Megan Mutters,
Kallum-Andrew Smeesters-Kirkwood. 

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iCreative is a new platform run by Film Oxford and Fusion Arts that supports young artists entering the
creative industries.

 

Thanks to:

Chris Oakley (digital artist) and Pete Walker and David Harper from Luxmuralis.

 

Wendy Aldiss who reads from An Exile on Planet Earth; Articles and Reflections by her father, the science fiction writer, Brian Aldiss.

 

For use of photos: the Oxford Mail archive, the Oxfordshire History Centre, David Brown, Kieran Cox, Tom Hassall and other participants in urbansuburban.

 

David Brown and Gillian Williams for taking part in interviews with icreative students.

 

Sound credits: Nicola Josse and Mo Harry

 

The Arts Council of England and Oxford City Council.