homelessness-through-art-blog

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Introduction

              I created the blog how can art raise awareness on invisibility in homelessness in order to demonstrate the society's abandonment on those who are experiencing homelessness.  There are various ways of attempt done by heartwarming individuals to bring awareness on homelessness.  Art is one of them.  Some of the works that I will be presenting throughout this blog go beyond simply making claims that homelessness exists; but they portray how people with homelessness may go through or feel.  With all honesty, it truly is disturbing that witnessing people sleeping on the streets, couch surfing or living in poverty is not enough for people to hope for change.  However, we take what we have and we try to bring justice to the world.  Again, art is one of them.  To conclude, this blog will touch up on the reoccurring theme of how people work through art to make homeless visible in our society.

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This art piece is created by Allié (2011) which she names it The Glowing Homelessness. This work is placed in New York city, and I am really drawn to the strong message it has.  It seems as though the artist is hoping people in the world will maybe finally recognize those who are experiencing homelessness if they are glowing with light—as if actually seeing someone that is spending a night on a bench is not enough to notice the problem.  Talbot (2013) from Invisible Victims: Homeless and the Growing Security Gap argues that the issue of homelessness is becoming more and more normalized in our society.  Meaning, there is an increase of people simply accepting the ‘fact’ that homelessness exists, and it is a social issue that will never be solved.  From this writing and the class discussions, individuals who are experiencing homelessness often cannot rely on the police in order to bring justice because of the negative relationship that involves stigma, mistrust and discrimination between the two.  Moreover, the writing demonstrates that those who are experiencing homelessness experience more victimization and complain about it less. When they are denied access of services, since they cannot reach the police or the law enforcement for such support, they usually internalize and solve the problems interpedently.  Sure, it is a good quality to be independent, but does that say much about the fairness in our society? How would the rest of the community feel, or react when they are put in the position of individuals who are going through homelessness?

Reference:

Allié, F. (2011).  The Glowing Homelessness.  Bring to Light NYC.  Retrieved from http://moreart.org/art-about-homelessness-fanny-allie/

Talbot, D. (2013). Invisible victims: Homeless and the growing security gap. by Laura Huey (toronto: University of toronto press, 2012, 174pp. £38.99). British Journal of Criminology, 53(3), 520-522. doi:10.1093/bjc/azs072

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             Although it is difficult to dictate the actual among of people that are going through homelessness, in America there were about 1.49 million people in 2011 using the shelter system in America (Quigley, Raphael & Smolensky, 2001). However, as I have mentioned, this does not tell us the real numbers of how many people are homeless, because this only demonstrates those who have used the shelter system.  There are various of those who choose to sleep on the streets, or those who have unstable housing, those who are moving from houses to houses, or those who are in risk of becoming homeless.  All of these factors need to be considered when reading rates on people experiencing homelessness.

              This artwork is called Homeless Graffiti (2011) by Skedden.  To me, this artwork represents the ironic representation of hope.  For those who associate themselves as middle or upper income class, using money for food is only partial.  There are numerous of other activities and elements which we spend our money on; such as vacation, house repairs, weather appropriate clothing, electronics, and more.  However, the upsetting reality is that there are millions of people who are solely working for food, or only for the basic needs of life.  Many are just trying to survive, but they still continuously get judged and abandoned by the society.  What does this say about the former president’s word on hope? Seems like it is fading away like that artwork, doesn’t it?

References:

Skedden, S. (2011).  Homeless Graffiti.  Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/skedden/5532117609

Quigley, J., Raphael, S., & Smolensky, E. (2001). Homeless in America, Homeless in California. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 83(1), 37-51. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2646688

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This is an advertisement about youths going through homelessness created by an anonymous artist (2012).  From the discussions in our class, there are various of stigma and labelling created by the society.  Such elements include people are scared being robbed, getting hurt or being abused. However, from this class readings and the guest speakers, I have very well learned the fact that it is in fact the other way around (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2012).  There has been 1,289 reported attacks towards individuals experiencing homelessness in the span of 12 years and 339 individuals who experience homelessness have died from such incidents.  Does this still make you question who should be afraid of whom?

This advertisement Stop your Walk or Walk faster? (2012) presents one of my points discussed in the introduction.  Of course, I strongly believe art is an amazing way to bring awareness that homelessness exists, and that people are suffering from not having a home or under living in unsafe conditions; but why do we even need art in order to prove a point of something like that? Are not visualizing what is going on not enough? Why is it that we need to bring various of tools into place in order to make people realize certain things? It really makes me question about the value that the societal view takes in for people who are experiencing homelessness.

References:

Anonymous (2012).  Stop your Walk or Walk Faster? Guerrilla Ad.  Retrieved from http://guerrillablog.com/2012/05/guerrilla-ad-stop-your-walk-or-walk-faster/

National Coalition for the Homeless (2012).  Hate Crimes Against the Homeless: the brutality of violence unveiled.  National Coalition for the Homeless.

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           This is an artwork called Street Art Project for the Homeless (2012) by Text Them Home. At certain times, people who are experiencing homelessness are forced in situations to act out on things that they do not desire.  From a study on youth homelessness in Calgary conducted by Miller, Donahue, Este & Hoefer (2004) demonstrates that whereas 67% from the research participants could find adequate shelter, 50% admit of getting this finance through illegal actions.  Some of these actions include sex work, robbing, stealing, and more (Allinott, Boer, Brunemeyer, Capler, DJ, Gleeson, Jacox, Kinch, Liao, Mirsky, Paceu, Pelletier, Shugarman, Sigurdson, Snowdon, Walton, Weich & Woelke, n.d.). As a society, is this concrete floor and brick wall considered a home? For those who are used to being in a sheltered home, they would disagree that this would be a place to live.  For some individuals, it has to be.  I find it very interesting how for people, a place like this would never be considered home, but for people experiencing homelessness, people somehow accept the ‘fact’ that there are millions of people sleeping in a place like this every night.  I think it portrays selfishness and ignorance.  When it is not one’s problem that would impact one personally, all of a sudden it is not a problem at all.

Reference:

Allinott, S., Boer, J., Brunemeyer, N., Capler, R., DJ, Gleeson, C., Jacox, K., Kinch, K., Liao, C.,  Mirsky, K., Pacey, K., Pelletier, L., Shugarman, J., Sigurdson, E., Snowdon, O., Walton, K., Weich, L. & Woelke D.  (n.d.).  Voice for Dignity: a Call to end Harms Caused by Canada’s Sex Trade Law.  Pivot Legal Society Sex Work Subcommittee.

Miller, P., Donahue, P., Este, D., & Hofer, M. (2004). Experiences of being homeless or at risk of being homeless among Canadian Youths.  Adolescence, 39(156), 735-55. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/195943629?accountid=13631

Text Them Home (2012).  Street Art Project for the homeless.  Retrieved from http://www.streetartutopia.com/?p=9980

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              This is an interesting ad about homelessness created by Metro (2008).  Let us analyze this photo first.  I believe many of us will have different views of what message this photograph is trying to portray, so let me tell you what I think.  I think that the being that is dressed all in black is our subconsciousness.  What does our subconscious do? Persuad & McLeod (2014) define subconscious as our ‘gut feeling’ or intuition that have influences on our action, behaviour or decision without requiring too much thinking.  Creating the cycle of people ignoring people that are experiencing homelessness subconsciously is what society has done to people experiencing homelessness. I relate this to Hidden in… Plain Sigh: Living Homeless in York Region photography project inspired by Gafri (2009).  This series of photos are created because some have argued that there was no existing of people experiencing homelessness, and Gafri decided to prove them wrong.  This itself is problematic; people refuse and ignore the fact that homelessness exists to such an extent that they think homelessness does not exist at all.  

           I acknowledge that it is sometimes an easier solution to look away or to avoid the situation.  I acknowledge that sometimes people feel guilty and sad by looking at people experiencing homelessness. However, I suggest you to think this through; is ignorance really the solution for change for the better?

Reference:

Metro (2008). Homeless.  Metro Free Newspaper.  Retrieved from https://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/metro-free-newspaper-homeless-11446455/  

Persaud, N., & McLeod, P. (2014). Demonstrations of subconscious processing with the binary exclusion task. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(1), 37-37. doi:10.1017/S0140525X13000812

Garfri (2009).  Hidden in… Plain sight: living homeless in York region.  The Homeless Hub.Retrieved from http://homelesshub.ca/resource/hidden-inplain-sight-living-homeless-york-region

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           This street art Perishable created by Michael Aaron (2011) brings out one of the labels that an individual experiencing with homelessness may receive. Scheff (2017) mentions in his writing that labelling has started from the mid 60’s with doctors and mental health patients, and this sense of labelling has carried on since.  How much harm can this do to individuals? From a research conducted by Restivo & Lanier (2015) suggest that experiencing labelling, especially at a young age, correlates in a great amount with one’s self concept, increase of participation of ‘deviant’ acts and having negative peer and family relationships.  Is this a surprise, though? We do not really need various of researches done in order to know this—none of us like to be called names.  It is clear that when we become upset when people label us.  It is clear that it brings our self-esteem down when people label us.  It is clear that we become less motivated for self-improvement when people label us. Then why is it that for people experiencing homelessness, it somehow is acceptable to use labelling?  I believe this can definitely be something to think about for those who label people experiencing homelessness as ‘perishable’.

 References :

Aaron, M.. (2011).  Perishable.  Retrieved from http://michaelaaronart.com/?page_id=94

Scheff, T. (2017). Updating labelling theory: Normalizing but not enabling. Nordic Journal of Social Research, 1 doi:10.15845/njsr.v1i0.63

Restivo, E., & Lanier, M. M. (2015). Measuring the contextual effects and mitigating factors of labeling theory. Justice Quarterly, 32(1), 116-141. doi:10.1080/07418825.2012.756115

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This photo, whose artwork is anonymous (2010) demonstrates the suffering of a little girl who is experiencing homelessness. Homelessness in children is mainly due to the unfortunate cycle driven by the parent and child relationship (Bassuk, 2010).  There is an increasing rate of child neglect in our society.  When we hear the word neglect, the image that pops in our minds is the caregiver abandoning their children on purpose.  However, the reality is that a lot of the parents cannot provide the basic living conditions for their children due to lack of affordable housing and poverty (National Council of Welfare, 2011).  For example, the parents cannot financially afford to buy jackets, mittens, shoes, food, or house for their children.  The parents themselves are suffering, and unfortunately this living condition that the parents are experiencing is impacting on the lives of their children. 

Child homelessness is a topic that is ignored in Canada, and this anonymous (2010) artist has brought attention to this saddening reality.  The thoughts going through my mind when looking at this artwork is how much I dislike the fact that a lot of parents experiencing homelessness are left to feel guilty and victimized for having children, whereas it is a celebratory act (at most times) in our society.

Reference:

Anonymous.  (2010). Home Less Home.  Retrieved from https://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/11/787338/-

Bassuk, E. L. (2010).  Ending child homelessness in America. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(4), 496-504. doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01052.

National Council of Welfare. (2011). The dollars and sense of solving poverty.   National Council of Welfare.

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This ice sculpture is an artwork created by Jamie Wardley (2015), and the purpose of it is to raise awareness about people experiencing homelessness who are forced to live on the streets regardless of the weather conditions.  A lot of individuals in our society make comments such as ‘if it gets cold out, people experiencing homelessness will find a shelter.’  To a certain extent, this may be true, but a lot of individuals do not feel safe or welcomed in homeless shelters (Harris, Mowbray & Solarz, 1994).  Results from a research conducted on homeless shelters in Detroit by Harris, Mowbray & Solarz (1994) indicate that most of those who use or had the experience of using homeless shelters have experienced a sense of danger from others whether be it from discrimination due to sex, sexual orientation, race, religion and more.  Moreover, the users have felt a sense of fear from contracting disease from the shelters and the beds.  Therefore, a lot of individuals choose to rather be on the streets.  This suggests that wherever people experiencing homelessness go, there is always a sense of danger waiting around.              Let us take a closer look at this photo—this photo relates to the theme of invisibility in homelessness.  Ice, because of its transparency, is something that is fairly easy to miss with our eyes.  This I find works like homelessness.  The society tends to ignore those who are experiencing homelessness.  Although it may be highly visible to some people, it is something that people try to ignore or do not consider for.  However, with just a little bit of research and effort, homelessness is an issue that should be well visible to our society—artworks such as this should be spread out more in the world. Reference: Harris, S. N., Mowbray, C. T., & Solarz, A. (1994). Physical health, mental     health, and substance abuse problems of shelter users. Health and Social Work, 19(1), 37. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/docview/1298064836?accountid=13631 Wardley, J. (2015).  Child Homelessness.  Sand in Your Eye.  Retrieved from http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/14146609.Artists_carve_ice_sculpture_of_child_to_highlight_homelessness_in_Bradford/

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           This artwork by Banksy (n.d.) reminds me of one of the friends I have (he was living on the streets at that time).  I recall the time randomly seeing him on the streets, and he was receiving a ticket from a police officer for panhandling.  I was furious about this incident, but he was calm.  Whenever I asked him how he was doing, instead of ‘good’ or ‘fine’, he would say ‘you know, just trying to survive’.  He hates drugs and despises those who uses drugs.  He has two daughters and his eyes light up whenever he talks about them.  He would always tell me how smart and intelligent they are.  

Whenever I would offer him money here and there, he would refuse at most times saying that I am a broke student who probably do not have much money.  He is down to earth person, trying to figure out the safest and the smartest way to survive.  I recall asking him one time, what is it that he really wants, and he said that he wants the society to change for the better.  He told me that he has tried his best, although he has made some mistakes, he really did try his best to make his life as best as it could be.  However, some things just happen or they get in the way. He said that he does not even want to be filthy rich, he just does not want anyone, especially his daughters, to go through what he has gone through.

Reference:

Banksy (n.d.).  “hero”. Retrieved from http://creartivism.com/street-art-homelessness/

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             This comic strip created by Glenn & McCoy (2010) is making a remarkably intriguing comment on invisibleness of homelessness. Nowadays, there are numerous of funding websites that any individuals can use in order to raise money.  Before I get further into it, I would like to point out that this blog post on this picture is really not to negatively comment on those websites—because they do serve good work—such as raising money for one’s surgery cooperation, helping out a refugee family, and more.  Such websites have been very successful in our society. What is important to take in consideration is that these websites would not be a success if it were not for the donators.  Meaning, there are individuals who specifically seek for these possible places or causes to donate their money to.  This all sounds good—but where does the topic of homelessness fit in this place?

              I believe this picture suggests two main messages: 1) only those who have access to internet will be able to receive donations (donations through the popular and easier way), and 2) people are not willing or thinking about giving money to those who are experiencing homelessness.  A lot of donations are made through the fundraising websites because people feel the need to help, the love, and the care.  The people are willing to give money. However, when it comes to homelessness, people ignore those who are asking money and act like they are non-existent (Robinson, 2017)—individuals experiencing homelessness experience societal disadvantages through criminalization and hatred.  

Reference:

McCoy & Glenn (2010).  To Donate Please Go To My Website.  Retrieved from

https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/h/homeless.asp

Robinson, T. (2017). No right to rest: Police enforcement patterns and quality of life consequences of the criminalization of homelessness. Urban Affairs Review, , 107808741769083. doi:10.1177/1078087417690833

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Conclusion

          I would like to conclude with the lyrics of Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (1962):

“I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest Where the people are many and their hands are all empty Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison Where the executioner's face is always well-hidden Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten Where black is the color, where none is the number And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'”