housing

HOUSING (CRISIS)

I lived in London for 10 years during which time I have witnessed and been affected by the housing crisis and gentrification.
From the doubling of my rent, to watching empty investment apartment blocks pop-up, to Grenfell Tower disaster ending lives of 72 residents due to a cosmetic renovation that used flammable cladding to make the building more aesthetically pleasing for the other residents of the second richest neighbourhood in London.

All of these events have sparked anger and frustration which lead me to make works as a commentary to the situation such as the 'Housing for Who?' video.

I also tried an element of activism by inviting others to join me on a walk to cover up 'For Sale' signs with artworks made during a guided workshop. Using a simple method of combining memories and maps to create an individual and personal representation of 'home'. This was the beginning of my focus on highlighting the inherent value of home instead of monetary one and celebrating the people who occupy houses and neighbourhoods.

Housing for Who? (2016)

Each painting was based on the four different locations in South East London, then I juxtaposed advertisements of the apartment blocks with the videos I took on the streets of these locations. Both paintings and film were shown during Deptford X festival as part of Gentrification and Housing II event.

Coming across this page about exhibiting in a model house in the 'NIGHTWALKERS in INCHEON' Publication by Expodium reminded me of my exhibition SHOWROOM.
Nancy also reminded me of the 'Estates' book (an intimate story of rise and fall of social housing in the UK).
This is very relevant to the housing situation of Rotterdam Zuid where I live. Property developers and investors have just arrived...

So what happened after?
I started volunteering at a local Community Land Trust (CLT) called RUSS and helped them build a community centre for their Self-Build Housing Project. This was loosely based on a method of the self-build project initiated by architect Walter Segal in the 1980s in the same region of South East London.
I spent time reading, exploring and visiting self-build housing, alternative housing, social housing, prefab housing, co-housing, urbanism, meaning of home, domestic labour, etc.
I started a blog called DOMA & DOMA, as a kind of visual dump of my research which consists of books, articles, housing websites, artists, etc. This is still ongoing.

I then moved from London to Rotterdam for a yearlong residency at Roodkapje.
I built an installation to reflect on the location (Luchtsingel, Schieblock and Vredestuin) as the entire area is planned to be redeveloped and will be replaced by luxury apartments/offices.

The installation was a showroom apartment, but displaying and celebrating elements of domestic life, community and the local. During the opening, I performed as a real estate agent doing a viewing of the “show room”. This was both a celebration of the domestic environment and a commentary on the housing crisis, gentrification and the citizens’ ownership of their cities.