against terrorism; from interventionist for- eign policy to disaster response in third world countries; from the AIDS crisis in Africa to that in China. In this larger context, home- lessness is merely one more issue caused by (and, perhaps, attempted to be corrected by) macro-level social trends, compounded by the personal characteristics of the homeless individual (financial distress, mental illness, drug abuse). It is the constant negotiation be- tween these factors that is at the heart of the Galt Gardens as a negotiated space between macro-urban visions and micro-lives on the park bench. Homelessness implies the lack of an interior architectural imprint. Not necessarily deso- late and poverty-stricken, a homeless person maintains a relationship with exteriors — walls, surfaces, and façades. As a literal architectural imprint, Ana Rewakowicz’s inflatable room upset the ne- gotiated space of Galt Gardens. The imprint of the walls with their wood moldings, the ornamental detailing of the light fixture, and the grain of the hardwood floors formed a pliable skin, both revealing and distorting the imprint of a solid, urban interior space. The architectural imprint is both utopian modern- ism and Victorian romanticism; both elegant chandelier and shaded lamp; it is nauseous yellow wallpaper and painted hardwood floor; claustrophobic, enticing, even erotic. Metaphorically and literally distorted, the structure becomes enigmatic – it is both a home and a signifier of a house. It forms an interior space, but inevitably will deflate. It is the imprint of an urban apartment and a tent for a nomadic woman. It is pliable, flexible, and easily transported, but would one call it home?
e xcept in deepest winter, Galt Gardens in downtown Lethbridge is ‘home’ to several homeless men and women. Photographs of the park when it was built in the 1910s show an idyllic setting with mothers pushing lacy prams and fathers in black suits, walking erect, waving jovially at families across the way. In the post-war 50s, the western flaneur gave way to utopian, modern, nuclear fami- lies filling the suburbs and only occasionally shopping downtown. The park became a desolate wind-blown space with a few lone strollers by day, and a cruising ground by night. Homelessness has become a concern in Lethbridge as the city moves to revitalize the downtown and Galt Gardens. This has threatened to displace the homeless people until a new homeless shelter is built. Now touted as the heart of the city, Galt Gardens has become a negotiated space between the homeless people and the downtown revital- ization initiative as, once again, urban living becomes an alternative to sprawling suburbia.
The night of Tuesday, October 5, 2004 Ana Rewakowicz set up her inflatable room beside the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Galt Gardens. In 2001, Rewakowicz took a rubber latex mold of a small room in her Montreal apartment, and constructed an external sup- port system to inflate the entire piece. Her cross-Canada performance piece titled ‘Trav- elling with my inflatable room’ took her to different urban settings – local parks, plazas, parking lots – where she camped in her latex room. Moving and travelling from place to place, she became aware of empty rooms as spaces that resonate with stories and feelings and recall a fleeting sense of being located somewhere, but not belonging. As Tuesday night progressed, it became ap- parent that the room was more than a sleep- ing chamber. It formed a catalyst for much larger discussions of world issues between Ana, her travel companion Vivian, and myself – from North American obesity to the war
Pliability, flexibility, elasticity — constantly rearranging to form an enigmatic space — might save us when negotiation fails.
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