Separation (2006-2009) Photograph

Rab Harling is a London-based conceptual artist who specialises in experimental, large-format photography and sculptural installations. His practice investigates the social occupation of space, from the urban landscape to domestic interiors, focusing on how people construct a sense of place, and how the design of built environments reflect and actively produce particular social configurations and political ideologies. His installations deconstruct and reassemble pre-conceived ideas about space, they are often site-specific and usually include a philosophical dimensionality, using influences ranging from mathematical philosophy to quantum mechanics. Rab’s work intersects with a long-term debate in urban culture and policy regarding the relationships between environment and behaviour, particularly in the context of the current housing crisis in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on the effects of gentrification on the vulnerable, and in particular with the socially excluded and insecurely housed. His current research is centred on Poplar, in the inner-East London borough of Tower Hamlets, a neighbourhood that is rapidly being transformed by the construction of dozens of high-rise executive apartments, built for overseas investors and priced out of reach for the local population. Over the course of three years, Rab has taken large-format colour transparencies, from the same position in over 120 of his neighbour’s flats in Ernö Goldfinger’s Grade II* listed Balfron Tower. The resulting transparencies depict a “fascinating and moving” (Barnabas Calder, 2014) portrayal of a community living with housing insecurity. The gradual decant continues to this day amidst conflicting political views between the housing association, the residents committee, the new short-term residents and their associated landlords. Following a reported £30 million refurbishment of Balfron Tower, a co-development partnership between Poplar HARCA and LondonNewcastle, the flats will be sold on the open market. Rab is presently the Leverhulme Artist in Residence at UCL’s Urban Laboratory for the academic year 2013-2014. In this role he recently exhibited Work in Progress from Balfron Tower, unveiling material from two new bodies of work; Inversion/Reflection: Keith and Inversion/Reflection: Void part 1 (2014). This research in progress was exhibited at UCL Slade Research Centre as part of Cities Methodologies 2014 curated by Ben Campkin for UCL Urban Laboratory.