Rising Damp
SPECTRAL DEVELOPMENTS –— HAUNTED SCHEMES–
London 2015 – – conjuration of empty apartments– – spectral dromes; from Quatari enclaves in the Olympic Park to vitric apparitions in Nine Elms, they emerge across the city as glowing husks.Networks of property developments create zones of control, landscapes pulsing with symbolism and intent. Squares and plazas shimmer in the haze of international finance , money sparkling in water features, private cinemas, roof top gardens–.
The signs are everywhere ––
you hear the feint crackling of power, notice where it lies, encoded, encrypted..… not concentrated in the City of London or Canary Wharf, but dispersed, irridescent in Italianate gardens, chequerboard paving, columns and neoclassical facades..…
We search for thresholds, tissue like walls—
-–As public space is enclosed, so protest shifts into the realm of the private, it regains potency by interrupting and rerouting channels of commerce and consumption–.
We occupy by haunting–..
This walk covers an area between Wandsworth Road and Nine Elms Lane, to the south is the Patmore estate and the market warehouses; a large residential community now being flanked by the various riverside developments under the umbrella of ‘Nine Elms on the Southbank’. Here we ask what could the implications be for art and culture as used by developers to increase value, and should it be a tool for contesting the projections of what this space can actually do for us?
