6.10.12

Nail Houses

Stuart Robinson

From 7th October 2012
The Stapleton Road Tavern Window Commission
4x Banner Prints (138x168cm each)  


The work Nail Houses for the Stapleton Road Tavern window commission examines progress, regeneration and urban development through the phenomenon of Nail Houses - a name given to the small buildings that often stubbornly remain confined within large urban developments. This work is part inspired by their presence in films from Robinson’s childhood such as Batteries Not Included (1987) and Herbie Rides Again (1974). These are both very idealistic films – the ‘good’ residents against the ‘bad’ developers with the Nail House becoming a symbol of resistance against unheeding change. The images look into a potential future - the stubborn Nail Houses, existing as time capsules for morality and social values, still standing, still pristine, while their once daunting neighbours exist decayed, their facades of progress rusted.

The models of the buildings themselves are sourced from the idealised world of model railways, a world that depicts a romanticised image of a specific time, a time when things were ‘better’ but a time that ultimately did not exist. In this world, like the world of movies a story can be created, the past can be how we want it to be, and the future, or indeed the present, does not need to exist. This can be seen as a synonym that mirrors the way we often look at out own lives, the past being created by our selective memories into an optimal version of itself with the rough edges removed.
  
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Contact Stuart here: stuartgrobinson@yahoo.co.uk