“Foreigners own £55bm of London homes as buying spree set to climb” was the somewhat xenophobic headline in last night’s Evening Standard. The real issue is that demand continues to exceed supply, politicians setting newbuild target but fail to walk the walk and for every homeless person in the UK there are multiple empty residential properties. These circumstances spark the explosive property rental market which sees the lifeblood of the metropolis living in stupidly expensive boxes with long commutes to work and ridiculous proportions of disposal income sinking into accommodation costs. So what’s this to do with Brickflats?
In 2021 I stumbled literally on the art of Brickflats embedded in a Shoreditch pavement. It was original, unique and as I discovered it was expressing social concern regarding London’s housing situation. I had never come across a street artist embedding solid resin models into holes in walls, it featured in the Graffoto 2021 yearly synopsis of street art as one of two novel forms discovered that year. Brickflats talks in this video interview about his background as a creative, the concept behind his wall interventions and a fascinating insight into his process and installation techniques.
Not sure why the blog is refusing to embed the video, please click the following link:
Film by Dave Stuart
Brickflats instagram (includes locations map)