The houseboat fabricated by No Fixed Abode, Dan Simpkins and Penny Whitehead is a scale model of the defunct Green Bank marketing suite, visible across the river from PSL. Referring to this show home (that since Green Bank’s demise functions
only as an image of what could have been) the work questions the narrative of regeneration surrounding PSL’s site.
Whitehall Waterfront follows the trend towards highrise, luxury living common in city centres across the U.K. Previous wastelands of Leeds’ industrial past are bought up for development; flats and offices crowd the river and canal banks and the waterways remain the only slither of space in public ownership. The raft at the base of their construction is a symbol of survival, of beating the odds. The artists suggest this be taken as a metaphor for the often precarious position of artist-led initiatives. It could in the current economic climate equally represent the developers and businesses trying stay afloat. There is a symbiotic but often tense relationship between culture and regeneration when artists are instrumental in uplifting an area but ultimately priced out of the market.
www.nofixedabode.org.uk /
www.danielsimpkins.net /
www.the-royal-standard.com
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No Fixed Abode, Daniel Simpkins and Penny Whiteread ‘We, the other: marketing suite’; found objects; dimensions variable. Photograph: Pippa Hale
Workspace at PSL
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