Neighbors

Fall 2019

Photography: Jihun Kang

This piece, Neighbors was created to acknowledge the presence of artists and students around the Pratt Campus and the impact of such change on an ever gentrifying Brooklyn. The two brownstones, nearly identical, are a representation of the passage of time – the black house a nod to the past and the white house the present. 

The past is comprised of charcoal, a fundamental tool that represents the foundation on which students begin their tutelage. Charcoal is an extremely expressive tool, its dark and rough quality speaks to the tumultuous time in the neighborhood’s history and the ability for artists with very limited means to create wonderful and engaging work. In the other house, white 3D print waste filament nods to the current day and the excess generated from the fabrication by students. 

A change in the spectrum of wealth is occurring as education in fine arts and design is becoming only accessible for a few. These developments conflict with those who have been in this neighborhood for generations. Those who have lived here are a continuation of the past – this aspect is represented by the model hand reaching out from the present home into the past. On the fingertips remains charcoal, a nod to the fact that the history of a neighborhood is still intertwined within the current structure.