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Ghostly murals: Tracing the politics of public art in Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley

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  • Friederike Landau-Donnelly

Abstract

The article unpacks the multiple political implications of commissioned murals in contested urban space. It examines public artwork in Hogan’s Alley, a historically Black neighborhood in Vancouver, BC, situated on the unceded Indigenous territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Coast Salish Nations. Drawing from ethnographic field research and semi-structured interviews with local artists, policymakers and community activists, I read the mural Remember Hogan’s Alley (2019), covering the sidewall of a subsidized housing project, as a contested public space. In this conflictual space, multiple pasts appear, disappear and reappear, oscillating between the celebration of Black culture, food and entertainment and the systematic displacement of Black residents and businesses. By contrasting diverging rationales, expectations and dreams regarding murals’ contributions to memory-making and cultural reconciliation, I trace where and how conflicts about public art inscribe themselves into the urban cultural fabric. The article intervenes into the predominantly ‘positive’ discussion of sanctioned public art to develop a more conflict-attuned understanding of artworks placed in the public realm. It deploys a framework of hauntology to discuss the appearance of ghosts invited into the public realm via official art commissions. These ghosts, becoming visible on urban walls via acts of placemaking, conjure memories of spatial displacement and racial discrimination, as well as stories of community care and healing. In sum, the article argues that the analytic of ghosts assists to foster an understanding of public art as always-already conflictual, thus inviting to stay with conflicts of belonging and memory, rather than to suppress them or shy away. By reflecting on what public art does politically – unpacking diverse narratives of the past that continue to mark present racial inequalities – the article contributes to sketching a conflict-oriented understanding of public space that is needed in cities wounded by racism and displacement.

Suggested Citation

  • Friederike Landau-Donnelly, 2023. "Ghostly murals: Tracing the politics of public art in Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(6), pages 1147-1165, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:41:y:2023:i:6:p:1147-1165
    DOI: 10.1177/23996544231172122
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alesia Montgomery, 2016. "Reappearance of the Public: Placemaking, Minoritization and Resistance in Detroit," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 776-799, July.
    2. Brandi Thompson Summers & Kathryn Howell, 2019. "Fear and Loathing (of others): Race, Class and Contestation of Space in Washington, DC," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(6), pages 1085-1105, November.
    3. Luca M. Visconti & John F. Sherry Jr. & Stefania Borghini & Laurel Anderson, 2010. "Street Art, Sweet Art? Reclaiming the "Public" in Public Place," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(3), pages 511-529, October.
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