Marchant, 'Close to Home', photographic installation, 1987 (2)

"It was a family photograph of my grandma Rose Marchant and her children standing outside their home in 1927...In 1987 'Close to Home' was sited on the first empty house on Colville Road and it called up many associations in connection with the M11 (road) campaign, like "this house was once a home"... It faded to sepia tone and eventually white - through rain and sunlight - after a year or two." Alison Marchant.

"It was inevitable that 'Living Room' focused on housing... but housing opens up so many other areas, so people could say what they liked."
Alison Marchant.

The project 'Living Room' (see below) was instigated by Marchant in response to an invitation from Holly Street Public Art Project. Holly Street Estate in Hackney was undergoing a six year process of demolition and redevelopment just 26 years after it was unveiled. Marchant compiled her own photographs, with those from residents and Hackney archives, along with interviews, maps and plans, creating an artists' book. It is both an historical document and a public artwork.

'Living Room' also provides a contrast to much of the promotional material produced by the housing professionals for this massive 'urban regeneration' initiative because it maps people's voices and experiences onto the concrete and steel.The project highlights the complex relationship people have with each other and their environment in this community, expressing both positive and negative views of the estate and its future.

"Taking a cue from the residents' conversations about the estate's social geography and architecture, I walked in and around, photographically mapping"
Alison Marchant.

For twelve years Marchant has been researching and making installation and live art work about working class women's history.

Frequently she centres on the question of power by exposing private strengths and inner resources. When including oral histories in her work, Marchant always allows the participants to edit the transcripts, recognising the difference between private disclosure and public testimony.

Much of the work, excavates public archives, uncovering and resurrecting hidden lives, addressing historical and social issues in the face of change. Marchant has enlarged these images and placed them or even embedded them within the walls of the space where these people once lived or worked and where she is now working.

In a number of her pieces (including 'Living Room') family photographs were enlarged to mural size and erected on the spot where they were originally taken. This process of making private images public is hugely affecting, not just to those residents in the immediate locality but also within the broader debates about the nature of public art.

Marchant, 'Aerial view from the 19th floor of Cedar Court showing the 'snake blocks', new flats and Middleton Road, 1996. (3)

[All excerpts taken from "Living Room" by Alison Marchant, 1994, published by Working Press, 1997.]

"...Easter we had a terrible flood. And we were not in, none of us, when the kids came in...they came in before and everywhere was full of water. As soon as you opened the door the water went out of the door like a river, and the kids books were floating about. The television cord and the player cord were in the water and the children were standing in the water shouting: Don't come in the water is shocking', because of all the electricity things!" Georgina Sultan, resident, Holly St Estate.

Bomb damage in Holly Street, Oct, 1940. Hackney Archives Department

"...Everyone says the houses are being built slowly, but it's a transformation...I actually went up to the 17th floor to have a peep out...I'm scared of heights but I thought I'm looking out of the window anyway but it looks great from up there..." Mary Beckles, resident, Holly St Estate.

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK...

Alison Marchant's work looks at the home as an historical site, a repository of the personal joys and tragedies, and the cultural values of those who have lived there.

• What would you make, inspired by this artist's work and the idea of home?

• If the walls of your house or flat could tell stories, what do you think they'd say? Perhaps you could design a wallpaper which told the story of your home in words and pictures...

• You could examine local history archives to find out more about your home. You could also ask local people to recall their memories of living in your flats or on your street or in your village. A collection of images and stories could be built up by your class or group into a tape-slide presentation, a multimedia piece, or a website.