Fugitive Images, i am here, installation at Haggerston Estate, 2009-14
By Rooney John
Real Estates, a new project by Fugitive Images has been launched to raise awareness of the housing crisis in London and to develop greater understanding of this important cause within local communities in east London.
During a series of events Real Estates will hope to engage residents, campaigners, homeless charities and housing sector workers; in the hope of finding strategies to fight social injustice and restore a more fair approach to the housing shortage.
At the launch event, at PEER gallery in Hoxton, housing campaigner and Guardian columnist Owen Jones passionately talked about the lack of accurate working class representation in the media and the government. As a result he believes it has been up to the powerless to force issues such as social housing.
The powerless Jones says are those who are defamed by the media and government, leading to negative treatment by the mass public. Calling this ‘the politics of envy’ Jones elaborated: “where people turn against their neighbour, their nurse, their teacher, their bus driver, instead of fighting their boss, their council, their government.”
In the launch week portraits previously installed as a public art work on Samuel House, Haggerston Estate will be displayed at Lux gallery, alongside talks about subjects relating to the housing crisis in London.
Other activities include students of the University of East London holding a design surgery with residents of the Nightingale estate, film screening and discussion with director and scriptwriters Pau Faus and Xavi Andreu and professor and writer Jane Rendell will discuss the tensions between individual and state, through regeneration and social housing.
The project is presented by PEER in association with Lux. PEER is an arts charity that creates opportunities for artists to produce exceptional work in unexpected circumstances. To find out more visit the their website
