Elevation

Date: 2009

Elevation is a unique portrait of Sheffield's (in)famous Park Hill estate, created during an eclipse period between clearance and reinvention

Elevation is an audio-visual work by Esther Johnson, made for The Sheffield Pavilion 2009. The work is a unique portrait of Sheffield's (in)famous Park Hill estate, created during an eclipse period between clearance and reinvention.

Lauded in its early '60s heyday as a pro-communal network of 'streets in the sky', the structure has since been loved and loathed as one of modernism's most visionary complexes or a crumbling concrete eyesore. Elevation comprises two concurrent elements: a sequence of ten fixed-camera portraits from carefully selected vantages around the estate; and a voiceover interview with longtime Park Hill caretaker Grenville Squires, who eloquently describes the structure's successes and failures. Above all, Elevation is a poignant memento of a turning point in the estate's history, as the last embers of its communal ideal flicker out, and the first glimmers of its coming second life can be sensed.

Commissioned for The Sheffield Pavilion 2009, a screening programme and a limited edition DVD/Booklet, launched and distributed at the 11th International Istanbul Biennial 2009, Büyük Hotel Londra, Mesrutiyet Caddesi 117, Beyoglu, Istanbul. The Sheffield Pavilion 2009 was initiated by Art Sheffield and supported by Arts Council England.