Questioning the Properties of Concrete

These pictures are an update of where I am in my ongoing exploration of concrete and its uses as an artistic material. The first and third images below show my first ideas of using concrete to control the movements of people within a space. I feel concrete is an appropriate material to do this as it has become such a prevalent material in todays society. It is used to build just about everything in a modern city - buildings, pavements, roads, sign posts, bridges and stairs (amongst other things) are all made of or rely on concrete, and it is these things that physically affect our movements. Yet we seem to be unaware of these restrictions placed upon us indirectly by this widespread material.

/Room Project proposal No.1\

/Room Project proposal No.2\

/Room Project proposal No.3\

I am interested in the properties of concrete - weight, density, sturdiness... I want to challenge our understanding of these properties by creating an object that contradicts our perception of how that material acts.

/Public sculpture proposal - 

Questioning the Properties of Concrete\

/Public sculpture proposal - 

Questioning the Properties of Concrete\

/The mould I made to cast blocks of concrete -

from which I could carve the shapes needed\

BFI Film Archive

The BFI film archive is a huge collection of some of the most interesting film and television ever made, with some of films dating back more than 100 years. Most of the archive is British, but does feature some 'internationally significant holdings from around the world'.


The website claims that the collection includes 'A wealth of material of every genre from silent newsreels to CinemaScope epics, from home movies to avant-garde experiments, from classic documentaries to vintage television, from advertisements to 3-D films, soap opera to football'. What is really interesting is that they have recently released a large amount of their films onto Youtube, and every single video I have watched has been very charming. Below, for example, is a film from 1970 entitled 'Rush Hour'. It is by the British Transport Commission's film section, which was set up in 1949 for the purposes of training and external promotion.


I find the ongoing theme of the clock ticking makes it very engaging to watch, and shows how little needs to be done to make a film really successul in its purpose.