Demolition in Progress

291 Gallery presents Etienne Clement's photographs of the now partly demolished blocks on the Holly Street Estate. The photographs preserve the haunted, ghost-town atmosphere that lingered there between the resident's departure and the final crushing blow of the ball and chain.

By employing many of the conventions of architectural photography, Clement frames the end of these tired buildings' lives in the way journals and magazines document the beginning of brand new offices, homes and museums.

Free of cynicism or any political agenda, Clement's photographs capture the moment between habitation and destruction. Sometimes stark, sometimes rich in detail and telling juxtaposition, the images all tell stories of how people relate to the designer's blueprint, emotionally and physically. Together they tell a story of how a system-built block is taken apart in as systematic a fashion as it was erected.