Concrete & Film is a multidisciplinary exhibition bringing together moving image, sculpture, and writing. The project is inspired by the ever-shifting landscape of London’s Zone 4—a liminal territory where the city peters out and the countryside has yet to begin. Sandwiched between the inner circular roads and the M25, this landscape is defined by flat-pack warehouses gridded into trading estates and abandoned industrial forecourts that are slowly being reclaimed by nature. Where suburban semi-detached houses rub shoulders with crumbling council estates and traveller sites nestled beneath the wings of monumental flyovers.

At the centre of the exhibition is The Links, the council estate where Fiáin grew up. Through this landscape class experience, place, and the social lifecycle of post-war housing estates is explored. Drawing on personal anecdotes, psycho-geographical wandering, and material-led practice, the exhibition reflects on the lived reality of estates—from their hopeful modernist beginnings, through decades of neglect, to demolition, privatisation, and gentrification. While rooted in a specific place, the work speaks to shared experiences of council estates across the UK and Northern Europe.

Using archive footage, Super 8 film, time-specific materials, and sculptural installations, Concrete & Film examines opposing aesthetics, the constructs of “good” and “bad” taste, and how these are intrinsically linked to class in the UK. By juxtaposing folk and working-class aesthetics with minimalist and modernist forms, the exhibition questions dominant cultural hierarchies and visual value systems.

The project reflects on marginal landscapes and those who inhabit them. It functions as a memorial to council estates and the historical moment in which they existed. The exhibition is time-specific to the life and death of The Links itself, marking both its physical erosion and its social disappearance.

Kai Fiáin lives in West Cork but was born in London and attended Chelsea School of Art where he graduated with BA (hons) first class. His sculpture, moving image and more recently, written work weaves stories shaped by the psycho-geographical landscape of London, with recurring themes of class and queerness. His work has been exhibition nationally and internationally; most notably at the ICA, The Whitechapel gallery, and the Southbank centre. His narrative films have been shown internationally, winning awards including Channel 4’s Random Acts award for best short film at the London Short Film Festival. His first two pieces of prose were published to acclaim by GRASS magazine.

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