Anti-Architecture: When the Relationship Between Sculpture and Architecture Goes Wrong

Abstract

Art as a generator of social change has become synonymous with community-centred urban
regeneration initiatives, an art form that tackles socio-economic, political, and environmental
issues, with the aim of creating a collective conscience, and which may seek to influence
policymaking. These initiatives can be generalised into two main groups: one which tries to
redefine the aesthetics of poverty by applying cosmetic improvements to existing structures to
highlight their sculptural properties and to create an image of safety and prosperity, and a
second one where the artists use socially informed methodologies to try to subvert the
underlying social frameworks to alter them and produce new models which could generate
progress. This paper proposes a critical reflection on the former, highlighting the shortcomings
of cosmetic approaches to complex urban situations and the risk they pose of perpetuating their
condition, in the context of sculpture practice and governmentally and privately funded
interventions.