This publication accompanies the Blow Up artwork, reflecting back to the days of children working at Sandwell Hall around the turn of the century, when it was an institution for training servants. We engaged with young people to explore what life may have been like, for someone like them, living there at the time. Sandwell Hall was built on the site of the Old Priory and was demolished in 1928, said to be because it had been undermined by the works at Jubilee Pit.
On Thurs 9th May 2019 young people and adult volunteers gathered together for a group photograph in front of a small audience. After a minutes silence, a pyrotechnic was set off nearby to create a very loud bang! This was the exact moment we wanted to capture, filmed in slow motion, to closely observe instinctive reponses to an invisible stimulus. The idea was to burst the bubble of cultural deference, symbolically releasing generations of children who lived in the past from a lifetime spent 'in service'.
