Since the industrial revolution, big cities have been attracting more and more people with their offering of job opportunities, higher income, better living conditions, healthcare, and education, etc. However, awaiting in these cities are not only dreams and happy endings. The exhibition Lands of Promises and the Broken Ones addresses the starkly different living conditions within metropolises in order to expose the omnipresence of social inequality in the contemporary age, which have remained mostly unknown to the general public.
What factor, if any, could have accounted for this "lack of awareness?" Could it be the impression of mainstream media? The development of the tourism industry? Administrative negligence? Or something else? The viewers shall immerse themselves in a myriad of contradictions to gain a broader perspective on this issue and may develop their own personal standpoints.
The exhibited pieces were gathered from Google image searches or are screenshots of Google search results. As the keywords slightly changed, the search engine returned a completely different set of results; however, a pattern will prevail as the viewer walk through the exhibition.
Sometimes “seeing the big picture” is not
enough. The image above is one great example of the many Google image results
for “NYC.” Now, zoom in a little. Change the keyword to “Brownsville NYC,” and you
will find images such as the one to the right.
1.Google search: London; 2,3.Google search:
Hackney London
Advertising
banner of Mumbai: the city of allure
Mumbai
houses the largest slum in Asia: the Dharavi.
As the
demand for new, unique experiences continued to evolve, a new term came to
existence: Slum tourism. This model
originated from the 19th century, at the time focusing on Manhattan
and London areas.
1. Google search: San
Francisco; 2,3,4. Tenderloin San Francisco
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