Lisa Dahl making a statement

There’s a wicked image I saw today from artist Lisa Dahl showing silhouetted homes perched on a lush, green vacant land.

I thought firstly how awesome it was that someone took the idea of idle land putting pressure on the market and making it art, and how well it fits into the ‘I Want To Live Here’ Film Competition.

Then I went onto thinking about how artists are able to really spread a message and provoke thought on an issue in the community. Artistic expression is important – but it comes at a cost sometimes to the artists themselves. So how ironic it was that some of these artists, like Lisa Dahl, who vent their rental frustrations into art are the ones that make certain suburbs seem more desirable and trendy with their art and culture…only to be driven out by increased rental costs and the sudden surge of everyone else wanting to live there. Look at Fitzroy, inner Melbourne, now too expensive for the students and artists who made the place what it is today.

I can see the same situation happening in Brunswick now, with Brunswick West and East jumping up in market value by almost 70%; many landlords have jacked up prices to meet the market values touted by the real estate agents and endless queues of eager renters line up hail, rain or shine to inspect an over-priced shoebox.

All the while, vacant land as in Lisa Dahl’s image, sits there waiting for someone to ask “Why can’t I live HERE?!”