Homage to a Lost Urban Survivalist, 2022

wood, concrete, glass, metal, found objects, fabric, Styrofoam, oil on cardboard, 3D-print

In 2016–2020 my family lived part of the year in the San Francisco Bay Area. While my wife was pursuing her PhD studies at the UC Berkeley, I took care of our three children. As much as I enjoyed I our life in California, the ubiquitousness of homelessness in one of the wealthiest metropolises in the world was simply overwhelming. Attempting to understand this unsettling disparity, I started engaging in conversations with homeless. It seemed as if on the fringes of the society, there is a parallel one, and even though these two coexist, they only occasionally overlap. ‘Homage to a Lost Urban Survivalist’ derives its inspiration from a stunning cart structure, put together from various prams by an elderly man, who sadly appeared to be lost in the parallel reality completely and for good. The work is a tribute to the creativity and resilience of the homeless.