charcoal, color pencil, marker; 16×20″
“Hostile architecture simplified is how the urban environment is used to guide specific behaviors. Today we see this heavily with anti-homeless elements such as spikes and fences under bridges, spikes on ledges, and perhaps the most ridiculous, waterproof paint used to deter citizens from urinating on walls by causing it to splash back onto them. This harmful practice is far from new, going back to 19th-century Europe. A heinous example is when a real estate developer, James T. McMillan built a 6 foot tall and 1-foot-thick wall separating a new development targeting white clients, from a predominantly black neighborhood. My piece depicts a hyperbolic example of this infrastructure. The drawing and bench is meant to look uncomfortable and gross. This is an under-recognized issue. However, in Baltimore an annual grant is given to local artists to productively bring the city together instead of marginalizing already marginalized demographics.”
ARTIST BIO: Alias HARMAN is a grade 11 student at Butler Tech School of Art studying art under art teacher Mary Catherine Ruby.