So this is just gentrification on a global scale right? Rather than being priced out from a newly expensive suburb to a poorer one you have to go from expensive city to cheap one. But the change in scale is in many ways more destructive because it means people get priced out of living with family and friends and even where they grew up, and also lose access to lots of amenities. I guess in the coming years we will see increasingly cities that have good amenities, in which rich people live and are prepared to pay for them and then other places left to squander. I guess this is also why the artist as nomad is really a veiled blessing, as it suits property speculators perfectly. (Nairobi anyone?)
A second aspect of this is made worse because in New York there are no laws to prevent massive rent hikes. Your landlord can double your rent overnight and then its bloody hard to find a new place.
So as far as New York goes, it is probably not worth the hassle for an artist, true, but this debate is happening here very much within an American frame of reference. Its not like they are saying move to Djibouti, they are basically all just pining for the good ol days of NYC in the 70s. Everyone here is so obsessed with romanticising New York in the 70s (David Byrne has been writing about this too). It really is a feedback loop consuming itself. In the 70s it was very cheap and rundown and dangerous, but from many reports it was still tough to live here, but the implication is that it was so cheap you could just hang out. None of the New York 70s artists really acknowledge the fact that the other reason they all became very successful was because American cultural hegemony at the time meant the whole world was forced to pay attention whenever an artist so much as sneezed in New York. So when they say leave New York, thats great, I agree, but it is also the same as telling the migrant construction worker to leave his family in Mexico CIty to come to New York to build a house for a banker because thats where the work is.
Still the reality is that many resources for artists are based in New York (networks, galleries, academia, reading groups, cultural stuff, museums, other artists, AV/film industry etc), so its not like the artists are here just cos they are deluded or anything. In practice New York remains the place where the conversations do take place in America. And besides its not more expensive than Hong Kong , London, Melbourne etc really (which is not to say its cheap!) It just seems that regardless of where you make your work now you need to have one foot connected to a global city in order to have a connection to distribution / cash / attention. Even Rafs refugee camp projects were really run out of foundations in New York, and everyone else who worked on them got to do so because they were in New York.
On the other hand cities nearby like Baltimore have several artists there now, and it is a city in which 80% of homes are boarded up and you could squat and/or live very cheaply. Many artists are doing this and its not that far from New York. I've heard theres some really interesting projects and I'll have to check it out.
So this is just gentrification on a global scale right? Rather than being priced out from a newly expensive suburb to a poorer one you have to go from expensive city to cheap one. But the change in scale is in many ways more destructive because it means people get priced out of living with family and friends and even where they grew up, and also lose access to lots of amenities. I guess in the coming years we will see increasingly cities that have good amenities, in which rich people live and are prepared to pay for them and then other places left to squander. I guess this is also why the artist as nomad is really a veiled blessing, as it suits property speculators perfectly. (Nairobi anyone?)
ReplyDeleteA second aspect of this is made worse because in New York there are no laws to prevent massive rent hikes. Your landlord can double your rent overnight and then its bloody hard to find a new place.
So as far as New York goes, it is probably not worth the hassle for an artist, true, but this debate is happening here very much within an American frame of reference. Its not like they are saying move to Djibouti, they are basically all just pining for the good ol days of NYC in the 70s. Everyone here is so obsessed with romanticising New York in the 70s (David Byrne has been writing about this too). It really is a feedback loop consuming itself. In the 70s it was very cheap and rundown and dangerous, but from many reports it was still tough to live here, but the implication is that it was so cheap you could just hang out. None of the New York 70s artists really acknowledge the fact that the other reason they all became very successful was because American cultural hegemony at the time meant the whole world was forced to pay attention whenever an artist so much as sneezed in New York. So when they say leave New York, thats great, I agree, but it is also the same as telling the migrant construction worker to leave his family in Mexico CIty to come to New York to build a house for a banker because thats where the work is.
Still the reality is that many resources for artists are based in New York (networks, galleries, academia, reading groups, cultural stuff, museums, other artists, AV/film industry etc), so its not like the artists are here just cos they are deluded or anything. In practice New York remains the place where the conversations do take place in America. And besides its not more expensive than Hong Kong , London, Melbourne etc really (which is not to say its cheap!) It just seems that regardless of where you make your work now you need to have one foot connected to a global city in order to have a connection to distribution / cash / attention. Even Rafs refugee camp projects were really run out of foundations in New York, and everyone else who worked on them got to do so because they were in New York.
On the other hand cities nearby like Baltimore have several artists there now, and it is a city in which 80% of homes are boarded up and you could squat and/or live very cheaply. Many artists are doing this and its not that far from New York. I've heard theres some really interesting projects and I'll have to check it out.