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Bruce Grenville on Eric Deis — pdf

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Eric Deis, Last Chance

Bruce Grenville

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It is a sad pic­ture, and one that car­ries a sur­pris­ing anx­i­ety. The small house is sur­rounded by chain link fenc­ing, topped with barbed wire, a ‘beware of dog’ sign bars the door, and nearby another hand-scrawled post­ing advises that the house and lot are not for sale. It is a tiny fortress, but­tressed against a panic dri­ven trans­for­ma­tion of the urban land­scape – last chance to buy, last chance to save the house, last chance to escape — it is hard to tell which is more impor­tant — but it is def­i­nitely the last chance.

The pic­ture car­ries an uncanny still­ness. Its rigid frontal­ity com­presses its spa­tial depth; its high con­trast reduces the vol­ume of the build­ings and fur­ther flat­tens the space; a black and white, min­i­mal­ist palette draws the mind away from the real­ity of the streetscape and ren­ders each ele­ment in an emblem­atic mode. Depth is severely reduced so that the eye is left to wan­der across an impos­si­bly com­plex sur­face whose tex­tures seem brit­tle and harsh. The sky is almost non-existent as if to with­draw from the nat­ural world, to exclude and reduce its pres­ence, we look for a famil­iar land­mark but there is noth­ing. The per­spec­tive is low, close to the street-level, and yet entirely with­out foot­ing. We are left with a sense that this scene is out-of-time, not time­less in the eter­nal sense, but with­drawn from the speci­ficity of the moment of its tak­ing — we are left to won­der if it is a con­struc­tion, a fab­ri­ca­tion, a col­lage of impos­si­ble incongruity.

Spa­tial­ity

In much of Eric Deis’ recent work we can wit­ness a strong inter­est in pro­duc­ing pho­tographs that cap­ture het­ero­ge­neous spa­tial con­fig­u­ra­tions within the city. Sev­eral of his recent pho­tographs focus on the jux­ta­po­si­tion of dis­sim­i­lar build­ings as seen in Last Chance. These pho­tographs, shot in Van­cou­ver, Tokyo, Toronto and else­where have a shared com­po­si­tional and tech­ni­cal method­ol­ogy, and a com­mon inter­est in the strate­gies used in the pub­lic and pri­vate rede­vel­op­ment of urban spaces. Tokyo is famous for the com­plex­ity of its urban growth in the post-WWII recon­struc­tion of the city. The den­sity of the city’s pop­u­la­tion, the explo­sion of post-war build­ing, and arcane zon­ing bylaws makes for com­plex urban spaces. This is most telling in those areas where mul­ti­ple land uses are present. Deis’ Rose Marry, 2008 offers a mem­o­rable image of Tokyo. On one side is an ele­vated rail­way, the JR Line that cir­cles the inner core of Tokyo and pro­vides con­nec­tions to all parts of the coun­try. Jammed into the space beneath the ele­vated plat­form, the small shops are closed for the night, but their pres­ence is strate­gic to the den­si­fi­ca­tion of the city, offer­ing day­time com­muters a place for a quick meal or small errand. Across the street the brightly lit sign for a game arcade adver­tises four floors of enter­tain­ment, and fur­ther down the seem­ingly end­less street more food and enter­tain­ment are offered. Peo­ple walk up and down the street alone or in groups. Sig­nif­i­cantly, like many places in Tokyo there is no clear demar­ca­tion as to whether this is a pedes­trian thor­ough­fare or a vehi­cle road­way, and of course, it is both, with­out being either. The com­po­si­tion is sim­ple, a long cen­tral axis is flanked by the het­ero­ge­neous streetscape on either side, reced­ing into the den­sity of the city. The absurd com­plex­ity of the light­ing is per­haps the key to the scene (and the city as a whole) for here neon, incan­des­cent and flu­o­res­cent light­ing punc­tu­ate the night, cast­ing incon­gru­ous and yet reveal­ing light along the way. Unless you know this area of Tokyo (or the many places like it) you may won­der at the improb­a­ble mix­ture of land uses and the den­sity of the built envi­ron­ment. It is a pic­ture that is simul­ta­ne­ously arrest­ing for the com­plex­ity of its con­tent, the extra­or­di­nary detail of its ren­der­ing, and the dis­arm­ing sim­plic­ity of its composition.

Deis’ Hip­sters and Drug Dealer, 2006 offers a sim­i­larly com­plex night scene, sit­u­ated in Van­cou­ver at a van­tage point high above the city’s east side. An unnat­u­rally bright night sky casts a mauve glow across the build­ing, while street­lights and build­ing lights punc­tu­ate the scene with an unflinch­ing clar­ity, reveal­ing mul­ti­far­i­ous inter­ac­tions that com­prise life in this neigh­bour­hood. In the dark dis­tance we see the skele­ton of the old Woodward’s build­ing, a bombed-out shell absorb­ing the light around it like a black hole in the night sky. For many gen­er­a­tions that build­ing could be iden­ti­fied by its big ‘W’ sign that stood as a bea­con in the city. In recent years a pub­lic cam­paign was mounted to save some aspects of the old Woodward’s store while allow­ing for a rede­vel­op­ment of that vital site in the down­town east­side. In Deis’ image the ‘W’ bea­con is gone and the build­ing site is dark. The light now emanates from every­where but the Wood­wards site. In the fore­ground of the pic­ture a small group of peo­ple gather at the edge of an alley­way. Across the alley, a lone fig­ure stands qui­etly; these are undoubt­edly the hip­sters and drug dealer of the title, but they stand for so much more, for the mixed and mul­ti­far­i­ous uses of the neigh­bour­hood and for blur­ring and blend­ing of cul­tures and economies. Deis’ over­head posi­tion offers an insight into the nature of the change that is set­tling on this poor and chal­lenged neigh­bour­hood. For many, the Woodward’s devel­op­ment is seen as an exem­plary instance of urban den­si­fi­ca­tion com­bined with a strate­gic mixed-use design that will see it serve the needs of the many and diverse cit­i­zens of that area. Today, edu­ca­tional, cul­tural, non-profit and gov­ern­men­tal ten­ants occupy the site, along with non-market and mar­ket hous­ing, com­mer­cial busi­nesses and day-care facil­i­ties. Deis’ pho­to­graph invites us to con­sider the nature of the change that has come to this area. While the Woodward’s site will undoubt­edly con­tribute to the pos­i­tive evo­lu­tion of the area, one can’t but won­der how long the sur­round­ing streetscape will sur­vive the wave of gen­tri­fi­ca­tion that is sweep­ing through the city’s east­side. It seems likely that Woodward’s may very well be the black hole that Deis describes, draw­ing the neighbourhood’s diver­sity toward it like the grav­ity of a col­laps­ing star, com­press­ing and con­dens­ing its diver­sity into a sin­gle city block, while the sur­round­ing streets set­tle into a banal, market-determined homogeneity.

The Flåneur

It is this inter­est in cap­tur­ing the city’s com­plex spa­tial­ity that is the sub­ject of much of Deis’ work of the past five years. Both the Tokyo and Van­cou­ver pic­tures give pri­or­ity to the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of urban spa­tial­ity and the forces that pro­duce it. For the most part Deis’ images emerge from his obser­va­tion of the city as a site to be tra­versed and stud­ied. While much depends on the angle of view, the time of day, or the oppor­tu­nity, it is clear that the city is a space that is shaped and formed by a vari­ety of fun­da­men­tal forces. In this sense Deis enacts Charles Baudelaire’s notion of the flâneur, an artist who has an impor­tant role in under­stand­ing and por­tray­ing the city. The flâneur is an observer who declares an objec­tiv­ity, detach­ment and crit­i­cal­ity in the face of the city’s spec­ta­cle. While the flâneur’s claims to auton­omy, objec­tiv­ity, and cyn­i­cism may be open to some debate, there remains an oppor­tu­nity to char­ac­ter­ize a process of crit­i­cal obser­va­tion and rep­re­sen­ta­tion that is pro­duced in this type of engage­ment with the city. Hip­sters and Drug Dealer, Rose Marry and Last Chance, are most cer­tainly the work of a flâneur, for they are in part the prod­uct of a moment of chance encounter, one that can­not be returned to or recon­structed, and in this sense they can only be cap­tured by a flâneur who wan­ders the city seek­ing out the nec­es­sary point of view and moment of obser­va­tion that reveals the city for what it is, a con­struct that is con­stantly evolv­ing, recon­fig­ur­ing itself accord­ing to a mul­ti­tude of social, eco­nomic and polit­i­cal needs and forces.

Baudelaire’s short prose poem, ‘The Eyes of the Poor,’ posthu­mously pub­lished in the col­lec­tion Paris Spleen (Le spleen de Paris) com­ments upon the changes tak­ing place in mid-19th cen­tury Paris. Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s recon­struc­tion was well under­way when Baude­laire crafted his obser­va­tions on the clash of cul­tures that it pro­duced. ‘The Eyes of the Poor,’ as the title sug­gests, describes a moment when the author and his lover sat down at a new café that was built on one of the great new boule­vards. He describes the bright­ness, beauty and wealth of the new café that shines and glis­tens with light, gold and mir­rors. A des­ti­tute father and two chil­dren observe the café from the street, won­der­ing, for diverse rea­sons, about its wealth and opu­lence. The author describes his embar­rass­ment in the recog­ni­tion that “…I was even a lit­tle ashamed of our glasses and decanters, too big for our thirst.” But his shame turns to anger when his lover, declares that, “These peo­ple are insuf­fer­able with their great saucer eyes. Can’t you tell the pro­pri­etor to send they away?” One can eas­ily encounter a sim­i­lar scene in Vancouver’s Down­town East­side and the other nearby, tran­si­tional areas that sur­round it such as Chi­na­town, Yale­town, South­east False Creek or False Creek Flats. These are areas that are under­go­ing a highly ratio­nal­ized, large-scale trans­for­ma­tion in which res­i­den­tial, com­mer­cial, recre­ational and insti­tu­tional zones are brought into a deter­mined con­fig­u­ra­tion. While one could point to many dif­fer­ences between 19th cen­tury Paris and 21st cen­tury Van­cou­ver it some­times seems to be only a mat­ter of degrees. Vancouver’s call for den­si­fi­ca­tion, sus­tain­abil­ity and, to a lesser degree, mixed– or non-market hous­ing are part of a mas­sive move­ment to recon­fig­ure the city’s cen­tral core. While the city’s devel­op­ment plans call for mixed use in com­plex con­fig­u­ra­tions, the end result often seems to be over­whelmed by the eco­nomic real­ity of urban devel­op­ment – money being spent and money being made – and the sur­pris­ing homo­gene­ity that it pro­duces within those neighbourhoods.

Smooth Spaces

Deis’ Last Chance cap­tures a tran­si­tional moment within an oth­er­wise non-descript neigh­bour­hood that is under­go­ing trans­for­ma­tion as part of this larger urban devel­op­ment plan. The house is a lone sur­vivor of a pre­vi­ous neigh­bour­hood that was formed in a mix­ture of res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial uses. Now bar­ri­caded by chain-link fence and cau­tion­ary sig­nage, the house appears as an anom­aly, a throw­back to a time before con­do­mini­ums and den­si­fi­ca­tion. The condo tower in the back­ground is evi­dence of the change that has already over­taken the neigh­bour­hood; and the show­room that abuts the house is intended to pro­voke panic buy­ing of future con­dos that will be built nearby. The tree in the fore­ground comes to stand for the nat­ural world, a space that might once have held a place in any dis­cus­sion of urban devel­op­ment, but in recent years has sim­ply been replaced by the notion of ‘sus­tain­abil­ity’, a ratio­nal­ized nar­ra­tive that offers an eco­nom­i­cally deter­mined model of the nat­ural world.

At first glance it may seem that Deis is offer­ing a cri­tique of urban devel­op­ment in which the house is per­ceived as a right­eous fortress, but­tressed against any future devel­op­ment on that site. But it strikes me that much of the work that he has done to com­pose and present this image points to another read­ing, a read­ing that is first and fore­most a cri­tique of the homo­gene­ity of urban­iza­tion, of the rhetoric of den­si­fi­ca­tion, and, in this par­tic­u­lar instance, of the spec­ta­cle of Van­cou­verism. The tall glass tow­ers, the view cor­ri­dors to the nat­ural world, the free and easy cir­cu­la­tion of cap­i­tal and com­modi­ties, the accu­mu­la­tion of wealth, the revi­tal­iza­tion of the down­town core — this is the spec­ta­cle that is offered to replace the dreary, balka­nized world of old Vancouver.

Deis’ deci­sion to com­pose the pic­ture using a street-level view­point, extreme frontal­ity, a uni­form sky, and lit­tle or no sug­ges­tion of depth, ensures that the arti­fice of his sub­ject is imme­di­ately appar­ent. The reduc­tion of the image to black and white fur­ther empha­sizes the smoothed homo­gene­ity of the econ­omy that has pro­duced this sit­u­a­tion, and also sug­gests the char­ac­ter of a news­pa­per pho­to­graph, a moment of reportage that is simul­ta­ne­ously a story of heroic resis­tance and of extra­or­di­nary eco­nomic oppor­tu­ni­tyi. And it is within the recog­ni­tion of this uncanny, dialec­ti­cal moment that Deis’ project becomes apparent.

We must recall that Last Chance is an image that has been placed in the pub­lic sphere, on a site that offers a con­text that is nei­ther an art gallery nor a news­pa­per, and here it is pos­si­ble to glimpse the tra­jec­tory of the dialec­tic that Deis has put in place. The scale of the image is per­haps its most notable fea­ture. At 32’ x 43’ it is a for­mi­da­ble size, sim­i­lar in scale to an over­sized bill­board or build­ing adver­tise­ment. Placed on the blank wall of an oth­er­wise anony­mous build­ing it looks a lot like a bill­board adver­tise­ment for a new condo. An uncon­ven­tional ad per­haps, but its for­mal­ity and archi­tec­tonic com­po­si­tion nonethe­less carry those famil­iar sig­ni­fiers. Placed as it is in the newly rede­vel­oped CBC/Radio Canada plaza, Deis’ image offers an alter­na­tive model of spa­tial­ity to this site. His uncanny image frac­tures the smooth spaces of the site, rein­sert­ing a spa­tial­ity and het­ero­gene­ity, that has oth­er­wise been ren­dered invis­i­ble. Sur­rounded by cas­cad­ing lawns, water fea­tures, a green-roofed cof­fee shop and a live-broadcasting, mega-screen tv, the black and white pic­ture offers an enig­matic image, that remind us of the eco­nomic, polit­i­cal and ide­o­log­i­cal forces that pro­duced the cur­rent con­fig­u­ra­tion of the plazaii. Deis’ inter­ven­tion isn’t prof­fered as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of a utopian alter­na­tive to the spec­ta­cle of Van­cou­verism, but rather through it we are invited to ask, how can we simul­ta­ne­ously grasp the most dynamic fea­tures of urban devel­op­ment and growth while sus­tain­ing a viable dia­logue and critique?

Eric Deis’ Last Chance is a reminder of the crit­i­cal role of pub­lic art in this debate. While pre­emp­tive pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion and crit­i­cal com­men­tary on key urban devel­op­ments often pro­vide the pub­lic with an oppor­tu­nity for a close analy­sis of spe­cific build­ings or a regional plan, we are rarely pro­vided with an oppor­tu­nity to return to those spaces retroac­tively and see them for what they have become. Pub­lic art inter­ven­tions pro­vide an oppor­tu­nity to unset­tle the smooth spaces of the built envi­ron­ment, to remix and open up its spa­tial­ity, to remind us of the neces­sity of blur­ring and blend­ing cul­tures and economies.
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i. It is worth not­ing that Deis’ inter­est is not in reportage or some sort of moti­va­tional approach to the spe­cific sub­ject of his pho­to­graph. The story of the house is never really told, though it is of inter­est to note that the long-time owner and res­i­dent finally agreed to sell the land shortly after the pho­to­graph was taken in 2007.
ii. Of course, it isn’t just the CBC/Radio Canada plaza that reflects this spec­ta­cle of Van­cou­verism, it is present through out the down­town penin­sula. The pub­lic art site on Hamil­ton Street was built and sus­tained through the sup­port of the Van­cou­ver Her­itage Foun­da­tion and Other Sights for Artists’ Projects. These two groups are ded­i­cated, respec­tively, to pub­lic dis­course con­cern­ing her­itage preser­va­tion and to the sup­port of artis­tic inter­ven­tions into the pub­lic realm.