the city is a filter

Nigel Rolfe

Just below the skin, under
the self-satisfied complacency
of affluence lies the darker
troubled circumstance
of urban reality for so many.
Poverty of opportunity, drug culture,
violence, broken hopes, robbery
and so many other social so many other social markers
that distinguish the Haves and
Have Nots.

The city is a filter.
Some things are caught,
perched on the rim, stuck
hanging on the edge,
exposed and declared
for all to see.

Ignorance is bliss and
this is a very selfish time,
no time for society
or much optimism of social
opportunity and development.
It is an 'I' time and not an
'us' time. Late capitalism
encourages as one of its major
devices that salvation will be
gained for the self by buying.
'I own therefore I am'.
To paraphrase the Nazi text :
'Arbeit macht frei' work makes free
shopping makes free.
Middle-class faith in the new millennium
is not found in the Cathedral of the church but
in the Temple of 'Liffey Valley'.

Determinants are 'Ignore the negative'
'Look after yourself only', 'Put yourself first',
'Not in my backyard', 'Not my problem'.

Cars represent freedom and power.
They are the signifiers of male aggression
and symbols of worth and success.
Speed remains an illusion of freedom.
One thousand new cars each week
enter an already over-stretched
infrastructure. In this climate Dublin Corporation
clamps with their multi-national capitalist
partner, 'Control Plus'.
No caring social concern this.
The flip side is :
Steal car, drive car crazy joy ride
like the car bomb, burnt-out, crashed,
Joy ride car monuments are strong
negative indicators of social ill-ease.

They pepper the city,
caught on the filter,
very live, very present,
but somehow ignored and not noticed ;
negative sculptures, public non-monuments.

Most advertising and strong aggressive
marketing is directed towards youth culture :
'the mobile phone', 'dancing and clubbing',
'new cars'.
The question is what of those who can't afford
or can't pay. Those who are in the vast majority �
The have nothing culture.
How is expression of longing, of freedom,
of wanting had to this disenfranchised youth majority ?

Nigel Rolfe is an artist.