'Because things don’t appear to be the known thing; they aren’t what they seemed to be
neither will they become what they might appear to become.'
Posted by Martin Cohen
Shanty Town
There's a kind of aesthetic too, in the parallel and vertical lines - as if drawn by a rather slapdash artist. Likewise, the rust gives the steel sheets an interest beyond their actual purpose, which would surely be just to keep the rain out.
That people live like this is really rather a terrible indictment of a world in which there is enough wealth for everyone, if it could be shared out, but to me this house is also testament to something more positive: a specially human mix of enthusiasm and tenacity.
1 comment:
These irregular sheets of corrugated metal, framing impermanent ‘homes’, yell poverty, deprivation, and global inequality. As well as the absence of what others might regard the basics: safe water, electricity, sanitation, and drainage. Although I don’t see anything ‘aesthetic’ in the jagged patterns that result — duplicated, I presume, by the thousands comprising the shanty town — I do see human resilience. How else, after all, might these families bear up, in the paucity of realistic hope. Though that’s likely no comfort for the people unfairly abiding this grim lifestyle.
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