Harriet Mena Hill

(UK; born 1966)

The Aylesbury Fragments

The Aylesbury Estate in Walworth in south east London, was home to some 10,000 people. Built between 1963 and 1977, its 2700 dwellings were first regarded as a flagship example of post-war clearance and modernist urban planning. The idyll did not last long and now a major – and, in many ways, contentious - regeneration programme is well under way, involving demolition on a huge scale. Harriet Mena Hill started working on the estate running art projects with residents in 2018; as demolition progressed, she started collecting concrete debris from the sites, recycling it as a series of “portraits” of the disappearing estate.

For a more comprehensive insight into this important and ongoing project, it is well worth having a look at this recent interview by @tinctureofmuseum