Shoreditch weekend: art and gentrification

I've been thinking about gentrification lately. Take this definition from urbandictionary or even this one from dictionary.com. Do you have a particular definition for what it means? I think of gentrification as when a local resident is evicted or displaced before a new establishment comes in. Maybe it's the wrong definition, but it's what I understand it to be. And maybe I define it as such because I think of a new establishment taking over an old, unused, area as simply change. Lots of people don't like to accept change in any way.

I was recently talking to Carlo about this, and he asked a good question of how to incorporate locals into these new "local" shops with "locally grown produce" and the right tag lines? I don't know the answer. I watched this video this morning about the Mission. What makes the Mission of San Francisco such a hot topic when businesses coming into the Arts district of Los Angeles is accepted? I really do think it goes back to whether change is seen as a good or bad thing and how it's framed. 

I spent the last two weeks back in England for work, and spending a day and a half in London also reminded me about the impact of gentrification. I want to tell you about Shoreditch because it's an area with so many layers to its identity. 

To the millenial who's keeping up with what's trendy from their latest Urban Outfitters trip, Shoreditch is probably known as the canvas of Banksy's on Brick Lane and the like. It's quite amusing actually. I saw people with cameras all over the place, immediately drawn to the biggest and flashiest mural they could find. So many people were posing in front of the walls with that one leg up look or face turned to the side, complete with red lipstick, tilted hats and kicks. 

Here's Phlegm for example. Apparently, while he was doing this commissioned piece, he got asked so many times by pedestrians whether he was Banksy that he started tallying it (see the left corner).

And while most people were getting distracted by the widespread murals, l was more interested in these simple beauties. I wonder what you would have noticed if you were with me. Probably very different things! 

Just for perspective, that is the bottom of a wall close to the sidewalk. It says "99% of people will not notice this." 

That silver mold was on a ton of street corners by Ronzo

Pretty sure this is Jonny Arnold 

Not sure if this is Ronzo again, but I am fascinated by this eye. When I went to Rio de Janeiro, I saw the eye graffiti EVERYWHERE but I never did find out who the artist was and what the meaning behind that eye is.

I agree. Happiness is so simple.

Did you know that all of England is constantly monitored by CCTV? Not by this camera!

Love this one in particular

The typewriter was a common one. I looked this one up, and it's Wrdsmth - a guy from Hollywood!

The World Cup seems like so long ago, doesn't it?

ELK

Don't know when this was done - Yipi Yipi Yeah 

If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend you do the London Alternative Tour, because the tour guides are artists themselves who care so much about the art they point out and they love them. It's like they want you to fall in love with art itself and with the neighborhood, and they try to get you to understand the history of Shoreditch as well. My favorites from the tour were Jonesy (see the sculptures on top of the post),Clet Abraham (always to do with street signs), and Vhils (really cool wall etchings).

  

Apparently this whole building is about to be demolished, so I hope you get a chance to see it. It's pretty incredible.

Now beyond the art, there's a lot to take in. The neighborhood is part Bangladeshi, part Jewish, part French, and a jumble of other influences. On one street, there is a mosque that was once a synagogue and before that a Catholic church. On parts of Brick Lane, the street is lined with posts, some that date back to the 1800s, where they took real cannons to create the posts. Down another corner is the Village Underground, a non profit organization that serves as a community space (and the building has a decommissioned train on the roof). An old parking lot was once an old manufacturing site, and the neighborhood was known as "Area A," targeted during WWII for its role in providing war supplies. Now, this area that was once a place of refuge for marginalized communities is a place worth millions. 

A lot of the stuff on the right is by Donk. The building facade shows remnants of Jewish establishments.

Street art changes constantly. Is the art part of gentrification? Paints get buffed out, stencils get drawn over, tags get tagged, and papers get torn. And that's part of the art itself. What about neighborhoods?