Transindustrialisation: Art, regeneration and cultural inequalities.

Abstract

Art of all forms is inherently political, even if it does not pursue an explicitly political agenda. Who is and who is not depicted and what is commemorated and what is not can reflect power and representational relations within a society. Similarly, the accessibility of art, and how art can transform landscapes such as urban environments is the result of political decisions. Drawing on work highlighting how some post-industrial cities have been transformed through art installations we consider, drawing on explorative walking in deindustrialised city spaces, the neighbouring communities where art is devoid of context. Spaces where there is a lack of art and so a failing to transform landscapes or to commemorate and memorialize their industrial heritage. We focus on the socio-cultural significance of such art in – or, notably, without – context in deindustrialised spaces and propose a critical reading of these as sites of “meaning”. We ask how the art that is and is not contributes to senses of exclusion and marginalization when urban environments fail to move into a trans-industrial phase.