Up & down : Downtown Eastside architecture

Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at Artspeak (Vancouver) from April 15 to 19, 2003.

'Up & Down: Downtown Eastside Architecture pairs Arni Haraldsson's photographs of buildings in the Downtown Eastside with fictional texts by Clint Burnham. Shot from public and private spaces with

Show More

the aid of local residents, these photographs show us a neighbourhood we didn't know existed: a beautiful and stately procession of century-old hotels. Landmarks like the Carnegie, the Empress, and the Regal are given their due, and that staple of film noir, the alley, is provided for our edification. But these photographs do not shy away from the seamier side of the DES, and grimy gated condo's are shown in all their tired gentrification chic. The publication is produced as a set of postcards contained in a foldout folio cover, with Haraldsson's photographs on one side and texts -- imaginary messages -- by Burnham, on the other side. Taking on the voices of various DESers -- from tourists and the police to activists and residents, artists and workers -- these messages explicitly connect Haraldsson's imagery with the social context of the neighbourhood: the language of architecture and the architecture of language.'

(Abstract source: http://www.artspeak.ca)

Show Less