I don’t often gush. But I love this piece. It has been replicated around the globe, and honestly I can’t track down where it first appeared, but certainly the tiles have been glued up in Brighton and London for a year or two, maybe more?? Culture jamming at its best. No poh-faced doom-watching, just a really sweet (pun intended) jibe at the cheery face of a serious social concern. Gentrification, at its worst, basically means forcing local communities, typically on low income out of their neighbourhood due to its inflated rent hikes, directly tied to inflated popularity as a trendy new(old) des-res part of town for the hip and urbane. The more faded, shambling, gritty, industrial, ‘urban’, “authentic”, the better. A huge draw for a certain type of individual. The certain type of individual who is downwardly mobile, and requires kooky, throwback confections to accompany their whimsically erudite tastes and visage. Just in case you are feeling particularly worthy, take a wander over to Edible Geography . A great article discussing the wider debate and a study from a few years back conducted by NewYork-based urban planning academics, discussing this very issue. How you can affect and measure the development of social space, amenities, the transference from local economies based on production proper, to leisure and retail-oriented models. Food for thought (sorry).
The world burns, we’ll be throwing a tea party in our Doris Day sun dresses.
