THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
the savage destruction of the inner city
Heart razed, excavated to the bone, the booming thud of the pile drivers its new arrhythmia, our neighbourhoods are flayed alive. Dank, disturbed, cloaked in asbestos-laden dust and tormented by demented B-Doubles, St Peters is in its death throes, political and social victim of unrestrained profit-fuelled urban development.
Westconnex, Sydney Metro – tomorrow’s Sydney built with yesterday’s cognizance – 14-, 17-, 36-storey blocks with guts that blast deep into the earth, rampant development spreads virus-like across the city, chewing and sawing at the skin of society as if consuming it alive.
In the warzone that is urban space, our neighbourhoods are supposed to be sanctuaries, havens from the inherent collision of work, politics, consumerism and greed. But this ever-spiralling conflict has exploded into the heart of who we are, and riven vast apocalyptic change into the soul of our communities.
Green spaces, heritage buildings, saw-toothed warehouse beauties that are a crumbling home to rich swathes of creativity – all are fodder for the consumptive machine. Labelled NIMBYs and chardonnay-sipping socialists, those that revolt are trammelled into “obstructive irrelevance”, denigrated and dismissed.
In There Goes the Neighbourhood, twelve photographers consider what is won, and how much is lost. They document the scarred remains, turn their lens to the marginalization of our communities, and consider the ongoing dislocation of the city’s cultural capital at the hands of overt corruption and the corporatization of government.
Featuring the work of Jodie Barker, Martin Brady, Tanja Bruckner, Lu Campbell-Smith, Jgor Cavallina, Alex Davies, Clare Hawley, Rhiannon Hopley, Fayroze Lutta, Azelia Maynard, Nikki McLennan, Rob Maxwell, Jasmine Poole, Pirate Photography,
Hamish Ta-mé, Hiske Weijers and Alien Proof Construction.
Cover image: Rhiannon Hopley
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https://artmonthsydney.com.au/events/there-goes-the-neighbourhood-the-savage-destruction-of-the-inner-city/
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