THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Temporary Services, the art group I work with, is in participating in There Goes The Neighbourhood organized by the artist duo You Are Here (Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg).

You Are Here writes: “There Goes the Neighbourhood is an exhibition, residency, discussion and publishing project for May 2009. The central element of this project will be an exploration of the politics of urban space. It will explore the complex life of cities and how the phenomenon of gentrification is altering the relationship between democracy and demography around the world.”

Participating in this exhibition has taken us to Sydney, Australia, where we are conducting a Public Sculpture Opinion Poll to gain insight and input about Bower, a sculpture installed in a public square in the contested Sydney neighborhood of Redfern.

We have put up clipboards in several public spots in the blocks surrounding the sculpture. Flyers are attached to the clipboards that ask “What is your opinion of this sculpture? Why do you think it was placed in this neighbourhood?”

Passers-by are encouraged to either write their response directly onto the flyers or e-mail Temporary Services atpublicpoll@temporaryservices.org with their answers. All of the replies we receive will be posted for people to see
in the exhibition space.

We are also maintaining a special series of web pages for this project at http://www.temporaryservices.org/publicpoll/.
Replies will be displayed there as well as background information about Redfern and the sculpture that we are investigating.

There Goes The Neighbourhood will be on view at Performance Space at the Carriage Works at 245 Wilson St, Redfern, Sydney, from Friday, May 22 through June 27, 2009.



There is also a book that accompanies this exhibition! The There Goes The Neighbourhood book, with contributions from Temporary Services, is here. The book will soon be available through the Half Letter Press store.

Temporary Services would like interested parties to come meet them and share opinions about Bower during their Artist Talk on Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. at Performance Space.

More information about the sculpture, Redfern, and our project can be found here.