ReNew06: A Collaboration.
Catalogue Forward for the Exhibition at the Liverpool School of Art, Hope Street,
April 2006
"To approach a city, or even a neighbourhood,
as if it were a larger architectural problem, capable of being given order by
converting it into a disciplined work of art, is to make the mistake of attempting
to substitute art for life"
Jane Jacobs
Liverpool has the good fortune to be a city derived less by act of creation
than by happy accident. The consequence of this haphazard sequence of boom and
bust, decay and renewal is a city with one of the most remarkable streetscapes
in Europe, a city that beguiles and frustrates in equal measure, a labyrinth
of people and places that continues to reveal itself and deeper exploration
of which reaps rich rewards.
The city may be full of Georgian buildings, but it is no Bath. Its waterfront is occasionally spectacular, but is no Bund. The city reaches its architectural crescendo at the Pier Head yet the joy of Liverpool is exemplified in its chaotic and vibrant palette of buildings that tumble down the slopes of Mount Pleasant and Duke Street. The city, like its people defies categorisation and definition.
Modern Liverpool then is a city whose emerging physical manifestation merely interprets countless former generations of civic intervention, investor speculation and public protest. The city has occasionally got it wrong, sometimes it has got it spectacularly right. Carpetbaggers and critics of Liverpool take note, the remedy for a myopic view of our metropolis can be found in the pages of Roscoe, in the work of Lutyens and in a visit to the Walker.
The portfolio of construction works in the city is currently estimated at around £3bn. Liverpool is stronger for the debate elicited by these works - the fear of change is of greater concern than change itself as it paralyses the city, and causes us to lose the robust urban physicality essential for a healthy city.
Artists have always played a fundamental role in the translation of the modern city. Amidst the cranes and dealmaking in the new Liverpool, the role of our artists in creating a parallel cultural infrastructure is essential. We need to support them. ReNew06 is I believe a crucial addition to this process.
© John Elcock March 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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