Visions of Paradise, 2021
Super 8 with HD video, 3D animation and vintage archive transferred to HD, 16'59''. Commissioned by Create London, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The work sits within Becontree Forever: a programme of art, architecture and infrastructure to mark the centenary of the estate. Courtesy of the artist and UBIK Productions.
still from Visions of Paradise, 2021. Super 8 with HD video, 3D animation and vintage archive transferred to HD, 16'59''. Commissioned by Create London, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The work sits within Becontree Forever: a programme of art, architecture and infrastructure to mark the centenary of the estate. Courtesy of the artist and UBIK Productions.
still from Visions of Paradise, 2021. Super 8 with HD video, 3D animation and vintage archive transferred to HD, 16'59''. Commissioned by Create London, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The work sits within Becontree Forever: a programme of art, architecture and infrastructure to mark the centenary of the estate. Courtesy of the artist and UBIK Productions.
Visions of Paradise is a film and digital animation by Shezad Dawood hosted within a site-responsive sculpture on permanent display outside The White House on Becontree Estate. The work’s title alludes to a description of the estate during the Ford Factory era as a ‘working-class paradise’ (Reuters, 2019). Dawood at once references and departs from a dream-like, visionary paradise by juxtaposing multiple filmic textures: from archive material, to clips contributed by community members and new Super 8 footage shot by Dawood in Becontree during the Covid-19 pandemic. The sculpture borrows its appearance from ancient Neolithic standing stones, referencing Dagenham as a site of archaeological interest, and connecting its pre-industrial past with its current residents’ sense of place.
The digital animation is populated by historical and contemporary Becontree symbols including the Ford Capri, the Dagenham Idol and pink flamingos that famously once inhabited one of the area’s parks. These sit alongside icons meaningful to the diverse communities that make up a more recent Becontree – such as the Lithuanian stork, or the Nigerian amunututu vegetable – and deeply personal objects that range from drumsticks, to a hot sauce bottle and a toy bear, highlighted to Dawood in his conversations with local residents.
Click here to view Visions of Paradise.