Advanced seminar in Art History and Visual Studies: Presentation

Tom Ward (PhD student at Uppsala University), Imagining Otherwise? Writing, Painting and Renting Urban Surfaces in East London.

East London has long been known for its cultural diversity and strong sense of community identity, much of which is evident on its streets. What can we learn, though, from focusing almost exclusively on its walls? Tracing the lives of walls in East London from the 1970s to today, this presentation explores how narratives of resistance, working class identity, neoliberal governance and commercial power can all be evidenced by reading urban surfaces. In particular, the contemporary development of hand-painted advertising will be addressed, to pose questions concerning the renewed and changing role of images in urban spaces, namely: what does it mean to ‘live in painted cities’, and how can we know what this means?