THE "quiet monumentality of Essex’s modernist architecture" has been conveyed in an exhibition by photographer Catherine Hyland, exhibiting at Twenty One cafe and cultural centre, in Southend.

Hosted by the Focal Point Gallery, the work was originally commissioned as part of the Radical Essex programme in 2016.

Hyland says her photographs convey the architecture, "now gently embedded into the landscape and consciousness of its residents, visualising the crucial role the county has played in the history of British Modernism and its utopian ideologies".

Hyland is a photographer living and working in London. Her work is primarily landscape based, rooted on notions of fabricated memory, grids, enclosures and national identity. She graduated from Chelsea College of Art with a First Class BA (Hons) in Fine Art and completed her Masters at the Royal College of Art in 2011. She recently exhibited work in the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Taylor Wessing Prize and the Renaissance Photography Prize.

Hayley Dixon, interim director for Focal Point, said: "Reflecting the actual view from Twenty One, three large-scale images of Southend’s sprawling seafront are on display, which include the brightly coloured rollercoasters of Adventure Island amusement park, entwined with the town’s historic pleasure pier - the longest in the world.

"The imposition of these frivolous leisure structures wrestle for authority over the vast and indifferent estuary horizon.

"Four smaller works will show alongside these pieces, showing the breadth of intriguing and innovative architecture from across the county. Brutalist forms in Southend and Harlow are represented, the old central library and shopping centre respectively, and in Lee-over-Sands, the space age architecture of Redshank sets a tone quite different to the surrounding hamlet community."

Each work is available in an edition of five, either framed or unframed.

More of Hyland’s work can be seen in the forthcoming publication Radical Essex.

The exhibition will be launched tomorrow night at a special event, on Thursday April 26, from 6:30pm until 8:30pm, as part of Southend’s Last Thursday Lates programme, a monthly night of activity across the town, with cultural venues open for extended hours and hosting special events. (#LastThursdayLates)

The exhibition runs from until to October 28.

Twenty One is at Unit 21, Pier Approach, Western Esplanade, Southend.