EXHIBITION LAUNCH: Thursday 26 April 6.30 to 8.30pm

Originally commissioned as part of the Radical ESSEX programme, Focal Point Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photographic works by Catherine Hyland at Twenty One.

Hyland’s photographs convey the quiet monumentality of Essex’s modernist architecture, now gently embedded into the landscape and consciousness of its residents, visualising the crucial role the county has played in the history of British Modernism and its utopian ideologies.

Reflecting the view from Twenty One, three large-scale images of Southend’s sprawling seafront are on display, the brightly coloured rollercoasters of Adventure Island amusement park, entwined with the town’s historic pleasure pier – the longest in the world. The imposition of these frivolous leisure structures wrestles for authority over the vast and indifferent estuary horizon.

Alongside these works, the breath of intriguing and innovative architecture from across the county are shown, including one of Richard and Su Roger’s earliest buildings in Ulting, Harlow Shopping Centre, the space age architecture of Redshank in Lee-over Sands and the brutalist style of the old Southend Central library.

This exhibition continues until 28 October 2018. More of Hyland’s work can be seen in the forthcoming publication Radical ESSEX.