ESTATE
Estate is a collaborative visual and textual project exploring working-class culture, landscape and memory. Developed by artist Patrick Murphy and film and television scholar David Forrest, the work reflects on the cultural and social histories embedded within British council estates.
The project draws inspiration from the Special Collections and Archives at the University of Sheffield, which house the papers and manuscripts of writers such as Barry Hines, Jack Rosenthal, and Richard Hoggart. These archives provide a starting point for examining how working-class lives have been represented in literature, film and television over the past fifty years.
Through drawing, image-making and text, Estate responds to this cultural lineage while also reflecting on the artists’ own experiences of growing up on council estates. The work is informed by the legacy of writers such as Andrea Dunbar, Shelagh Delaney, and David Storey, alongside filmmakers including Shane Meadows and Clio Barnard, whose work has shaped contemporary portrayals of working-class life.
The project invites audiences to reconsider how working-class culture is documented and represented today. By revisiting historical archives and combining them with contemporary artistic responses, Estate creates a dialogue between past and present, asking how creative practice can continue to give voice to working-class stories.
The resulting works form part of an exhibition and a limited edition artist book, which will be donated to the University of Sheffield’s Special Collections and Archives. A digital version of the publication is also available, extending access to the project beyond the exhibition space.
At the centre of the project is an exploration of the word ESTATE itself. Murphy’s drawings layer and intertwine the letterforms, stacking them into structures that resemble street plans, housing grids or architectural blueprints. The overlapping forms suggest the density and complexity of estate life — organised yet irregular, structured yet improvised — reflecting the lived experience of communities shaped by shared space.
The sculpture was designed to animate as sunlight shines through its details at different times of day.
