Sitting Pretty offers a critical yet slightly absurd reflection on the pervasive use of hostile architecture in city spaces. The work focuses on the removal of anti-sitting spikes from a subway station entrance, an area used by the city’s homeless population as shelter from the rain. This action is a small gesture of reclamation of public space.
The anti-sitting spikes are then fabricated into flower pots at a local metal workshop, filled with plants reclaimed from a garden of a nearby new development, a towering glass and plastic beacon of gentrification. These flower pots are then reinstalled back in the very same location from which they were taken, subverting the spikes' hostile intent by creating a more welcoming space and adding greenery to a previously barren area. This intervention critiques how cities increasingly use architecture to police behaviour.
Assisted by Epos 257 and filmed by Filip Marysko.
Reclaimed anti-sitting spikes, reclaimed plants. Varied dimensions. 2024.
Reclaimed anti-sitting spikes, reclaimed plants. Varied dimensions. 2024.
Reclaimed anti-sitting spikes, reclaimed plants. Varied dimensions. 2024.