Installed in nine locations across the Becontree Estate, artist Verity-Jane Keefe’s new public realm exhibition makes visible some of the objects collected as part of her long-term project in Becontree, Living Together.

The work intends to reflect the material of the place including building matter and archival political material. This new archive – The Becontree Collection –  brings together material from the last 100 years, collected from individuals, through a long period of public engagement and from Keefe’s long-term documentation of the estate. The billboard commission makes the collection visible across the estate in this its centenary year as a series of artworks with newly written poetic statements.

The Becontree Collection is about and for Becontree; recording, responding and collected over 2021 as a slice of both time and place.  Visually rich, the Collection intends to fill the gaps in formal historical archives, as trends in collecting and archiving have changed in this post municipal era; this project responds to shifts in social history, documentation and local trends from the 1970’s onwards.

Its starting point was the archive of former Alderman Cllr Fred Jones, whose former home was the inaugural HQ for Living Together, the Councillor’s personal and political ephemera were saved and forms a key strand of the Becontree Collection. 

Share your photographs online using #LivingTogetherVJK 

For more information on the series and images visit:  www.livingtogether.org.uk/collection-billboards