The Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal was first opened on the 10th July 1801. This was a major event during England's industrialisation and provided a new, quicker transport system for industrial goods to be conveyed from the Midlands to London. To commemorate this date, I supervised a site-specific drawing under the Westway flyover adjacent to the canal. This invited the passing public to reflect on the past, present and future of the canal and the Westway. This is part of a larger project called Flood Light which has been commissioned for the InTRANSIT festival of arts, 19 July - 1 August, by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Flood Light was a film making project open to the public and invited short films on the theme of a "journey" between the canal and Westway in North Kensington. This project was also supported by the V&A Musuem, Westway Development Trust and the Portobello Film Festival.

Morgan Baptiste: "The project has given me confidence in how to use footage to create a film."

Azeem Mustafa: “Thanks for all that you've offered, it was a great opportunity.

Shan Stephens: “Enjoyed the small group size and the sense of collaboration rather than competition.”

Flood Light was a film making guided tour of the Grand Union Canal and Westway in North Kensington, London. It was held on the 31 July and 1 August 2010. Participants were supplied with camcorders, filmed their guided walk and then edited their footage into a short 3 minute film at the V&A Museum's Sackler Centre for Education. The editing workshops were run by Constantine Gras, Lucy Williams and Mishko Papic.

Here a link to one of the films made during the guided tour by Shan Stephens: vimeo.com/15426211

Flood Light was commissioned as part of InTRANSIT festival of arts for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Artists created bold and unique trails across the borough exploring hidden or unknown spaces.

There was also an open film competition for emerging film makers.

A programme of 11 short films was shown at the Portobello Film Festival in September 2010:
vimeo.com/channels/floodlight

# Artist: RandL
# Title: Under the Westway
# Film description: A mix of colours, sounds, creative energy.
# Bio: RandL: a randomless function to trigger your brain. (RandL formerly know as Lucilla Nitto, photographer and Roberto Bove, musician)
randlproject.com
lucillanitto.com
robertobove.com
PS This is not a blur video

Flood Light is a poetic journey of discovery into the history of the Grand Union Canal and Westway (A40), inter-related transport and built environments in West London. A search through archives and museums leads to personal reflections on childhood, identity and the legacy of my father; a Polish refugee who as a carpenter contributed to the rebuilding of post-war London.

The Grand Junction Canal, as it was first known, was built between 1793-1805. It was initially financed by public subscription with the bulk of the money coming from the aristocratic Temple family. However, it was later built and run by entrepreneurs and an early example of private capitalism using shares and bonds. The transport of goods, primarily coal, from the industrial heartland of the Midlands to London, powered the industrial revolution.
The Westway built between 1966 and 1970 was part of a much larger Greater London Council plan (thankfully, never to materialise) for building motorway-standard roads across London as a solution to the problems caused by traffic congestion and predicted increases in car-ownership.
in 1801, twenty thousand people turned out to celebrate the coming of the Paddington branch of the canal to what was then the outskirts of London. The official opening of the Westway in 1970 involved the local community protesting in favour of ‘homes, not roads’; a moot point given some residents were living a mere twenty metres from the new superstructure. Twenty-three acres of land under the Westway are now managed by the Westway Development Trust for the benefit of the community.

Constantine Gras is a 2012 Cultural Olympiad artist and this film is part of a project commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and supported by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Flood Light used the V&A's Sackler Centre for Education for film-making workshops and its gallery locations to explore Britain's cultural heritage and diversity.

"Constantine's film captures the essence of a very special area of the Royal Borough, which has been through many changes over the years. Whilst it is also an extremely personal journey, Floodlight touches on experiences that we can all relate to. Beautiful and poetic, and straight from the heart of this talented artist."
Rebecca Pelly-Fry
Arts Development Officer, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

"Stunned by the beauty of your film: images, rhythm and depth of your research."
Renee Glynne
Continuity and Script Supervisor, A Room With A View & The Krays

"Your film was very inspiring. I was impressed by how you produced multiple resonating narratives and images in such a short piece, and wove together the various themes in a very subtle way. And it has made me want to revisit an old idea I had about a photography project to do with my own father. So thank you for that."
Judy Greenway
Participant in the Flood Light project

Screenings:
Portobello Film Festival, 2010: Nominated for Best London Film
Whitechapel Gallery, 2010
London Short Film Festival, 2011
London Independent Film Festival, 2011
Folly For A Flyover Festival, 2011
Shoreditch Festival, 2011
Westway Motorway Art, 2011
Centre for Creative Collaboration, 2011.
HISTORYtalk, 2012.

grasart.com/flood-light.html

Reflection on loss and environment on a canal that runs alongside a motorway.