Hoarding
Mixed media installation2018
This project considers the housing crisis affecting the whole country, with particular pressures on London, and the economic, social and psychological stresses and strains which this man-made situation has created.
At the same time as existing social housing is demolished by local authorities, leading to the disintegration of longstanding communities, new developments targeted at off-shore investment and priced beyond the means of ordinary citizens are being constructed. Though these properties, offered to foreign nationals as a capital investment, often remain unoccupied they are still strategically marketed using CGI renders of potential internal living environments.
Carefully calculated representations of desirable lifestyles are represented, from curated cushions, full cafetieres and inoffensive wall-art to bowls of fruit, on-trend coffee table books and distant views. These are interiors designed to project an image of habitation to a buyer who will never assume the role of resident. These are imagined realities.
The hoardings that wrap building sites display an opulence and ambition to those who will never afford the digitally created scenes in the renders. The spaces created appear real but will never exist as shown, the properties will be stacked high but many will remain empty. The city becomes the representation of a city, a simulacra in which the functions, connections, histories and workings of a city are removed to create a marketing opportunity.
