The product of Meynell’s work as a video artist on the Blackstock Estate along with the photographer David Hevey on the Barnsbury Estate, Mark Fairnington, a painter, on the Gridlestone Estate and Roger Tondrow on the Hornsey Lane Estate.
Meynell worked on the Blackstock, estate teaching local people to use video equipment, make campaign tapes and working with a women’s group and youth club. The project was meant to promote the understanding and the enjoyment of the visual arts, to promote participation and to enable local people to develop practical skills. The result of Meynell’s part of the project was a video ‘flickbook’ using three monitors.
‘Kate Meynell’s video of Blackstock Estate tenants, Group Portrait, shows heads, middles and feet on three separate monitors out of synch, so that while one adult face composes itself, one kid’s foot is propped coolly against the wall, or a hand gesticulates with a cigarette. What sounds objectifying is actually warm and participatory, with the children especially using the camera – outstaring it, posing.’ – Rose Jennings, City Limits, August 1987 (Review of 4 Artists for Islington at Hardware Gallery).
Stills from Blackstock Tapes
