ART INTERVENTION ON CARPENTERS ESTATE JUNE 2014

 

We Could Be Here/ These Homes Need People (June 2014, Carpenters Estate), Emer Mary Morris & FUGITIVE IMAGES &  Focus E15 Campaign.

We Could Be Here/ These Homes Need People is a urban art intervention made with Focus E15 Mothers Campaign that follows on from Fugitive Images’ I Am Here. Drawing on the practice of photo installation and the re-appropriation of disused space We Could Be Here demonstrates the potential of deserted spaces to be homes for those who need them. Portraits of the evicted residents of Focus E15 hostel are posted over the boarded up windows of empty properties. Surrounded by new towers of expensive private buy-to-let flats, Stratford’s Carpenters Estate is a ghost town of empty social properties. The publically owned 1960s tower blocks once aimed at solving London’s housing crisis are now largely deserted, with toilets and baths now filled with concrete to stop illicit occupation. The aim of We Could Be Here is to draw to the public’s attention the misdirection of investment into new luxury developments when what is needed desperately is social housing: and here it is – not being used, but ‘marked’ to await development. Focus E15 is great making creative fun protest and this was no different:  putting up the portraits was fun day in hot June where lots of supporters came together  to past up the pictures,  supping on ice pops , chilling out in the shade and chatting to residents on the estate. As ever Focus E15 demonstrates the power of community in action, demanding : Social Housing Not Social Cleansing.

For more info on the campaign please visit 
focuse15london.org
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