Salford 7 : the representation and reconstruction of a lost working class community

This PhD submission is entitled Salford 7, the representation and reconstruction of a lost working class community. In it, I critically reflect on a series of Installations that were made during the three year research period, examining the use of the media I have employed and the sites in which the work has been installed and its affects on audiences. Moving between practical and theoretical explorations, I contextualize the installations through reference to critical debates regarding the role of the museum, the archive and artists interventions into urban, community and museum spaces. The aim of the research project is to examine the role of installation art practice in re-tracing, catalysing and commemorating urban working class community histories. Although a small number of individual art practitioners have focused on the representation of working class culture and histories within installations since the 1980s, it remains an under represented area of research. This absence over the past twenty five years has regularly been identified within critical literature as an area for further exploration. The research project focuses on Salford 7, an area that is now demolished. This thesis documents and reflects upon installations that were located in museum sites, community spaces and derelict streets in the city. The instllations utilised family photographs, films, the material remnants of the destroyed area and oral histories as temporary interventions into spaces of historical meaning. Key questions concernced the possiblility of such interventions evoking collective memories of a lost community, and by turn catalysing actions related to regeneration, clearances and the community.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo