The street where luxury and poverty meet

“In late December 2018, I drove through DTLA for the first time. As I passed through the concrete chasms and shining edifices I wondered at the majesty of Los Angeles, king of all it surveys.

Then I found myself in 6th Street.

The shock was visceral. As far as I could see in every direction were hundreds and hundreds of tents, the filthy streets were populated with thousands of lost souls, seemingly ignored, abandoned, shunned.

The juxtaposition was jarring. Here was the city of glamour, success, riches beyond mortal dreams and yet, here in the very heart of it was its dirty secret, the corner of carpet where its most destitute detritus was swept under and left to rot.

As a foreigner, I have witnessed poverty in many countries around the world, not least my own, but the power to shock me came, not from the poverty, but the proximity. How could this place exist only ten miles across town from the shining temple to luxury that is Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills?

I discovered that this place had a name, Skid Row, and a demarcation on the map that helpfully allowed LA’s other resident to know how to avoid being confronted with this unpalatable reality.

I resolved to do something as an artist to try and capture and articulate my initial response before I too became desensitised, complacent and finally oblivious to what lay before me.