NO ONE TOLD ME I WAS LIVING IN A BRUTALIST NIGHTMARE MARK II.
“Cumbernauld, a land of concrete mounds interspersed with grassy knowles and nooks and crannies made for kick the can; a double nougat ice cream on a Friday night; chap the door and runaway; the wooden tops playground and running along the pipey.”
My project, No One Told me I was Living in a Brutalist Nightmare Mark ii, uses clay to explore childhood narrative growing up in brutalist social housing in 1960’s, Scotland. There is an undercurrent of negativity attached to living in housing provided by the welfare state. My hometown of Cumbernauld was often described as, “an ugly concrete jungle.” Using playfulness, with a hint of humour, my art practice aims to present an alternative viewpoint to this. Whilst my forms reference the austere aesthetics of this post-war architecture, such as concrete, modular elements and geometric shapes, it is through revisiting happy childhood memories, and the intimate and tactile process of hand building, that the sculptures are imbued with an emotional resonance.
Kate Weeks, ‘No one Told me I was Living in a Brutalist Nightmare Mark ii’, 2024, raku clay. Photo: RMIT DSC Learning, Teaching & Quality
