isabelle hayeur: fire with fire

Controversial, but very powerful - imagine seeing that at a glance... shame this area has been so neglected.

Eddie   12.29.10

Shame this area's PEOPLE have been so neglected. Criminally negligent public policies that choose to deny impoverished people access to basic human services ( including affordable housing) can be changed, but only if the people they serve are deemed more valuable than the "derelict" properties that greedy developers salivate over while watching the artists start the slide towards gentrification...

SallyCynic   12.29.10

Can't help but wonder how many calls the fire department got from this installation! Wonderfully visual but does it seriously bring any attention to the social neglect of an area? Or honestly recall the Vancouver fire of 1886? Hmmm…
If the artist just simply presented it as is - without feeling the need to try to explain or justify her actions - then I could simply say that I love it :)

Lombax   12.30.10

Every time when I walk in this area I wonder why nobody haven't bought any of this buildings, they are so cool, perfect for a studio or bar or anything. Love that area, I wish I had enough money to buy it and live in there!

Anton   12.30.10

[quote]Criminally negligent public policies that choose to deny impoverished people access to basic human services[/quote]
I get so tired of people complaining about how it's everyone else's problem that people are homeless. I work hard, have a job, not a good job, but a job, and I DON'T spend more than I make. Why should it be my responsibility to bail others out. No one is offering me a handout.

Give em a place to shower, and help em get a JOB! After that, it's their own problem.

TiredOfTaxesGoingToEveryoneElse   12.30.10

I get so tired of teabaggers treating poverty and mental illness as a character flaw. If you are willing to walk by and let people starve or freeze to death without taking the time to understand how they got there, you are a selfish cretin. I hope when the economy swallows you up, and you find yourself in the very same place as the people you are now looking down your nose at, I hope you manage to find help from someone very much unlike yourself.

TiredofLibertarians   12.30.10

Wow just think of the poor child who died choking on a piece of food, because the firefighters were busy across town putting out a fake fire, because an artist felt like it was important to express the way they feel about poverty to the rest of the world. Nice!

Zombie   12.31.10

Zombie, you are in need of BRAAAAAAAAAAAIIINSSSS.

just think   12.31.10

How stupid is this artist? "I know! Im going to make a huge fake fire in a building!" I know it said before (zombie) but what if there was a, i don't know, REAL fire that occured, and this fire crew could make it in time because they had to deal with this! I can't tell you how stupid this is!!!

ISABELLE HAYEUR is stupid!   12.31.10

um...
i think with an installation like this, the city would've have known about it as to avoid any of the above situations mentioned. isn't this usually the case?

think about it   12.31.10

[quote] um... i think with an installation like this, the city would've have known about it as to avoid any of the above situations mentioned. isn't this usually the case? [/quote]
Sadly, this is not always the case. And we all know how bureaucracy 'works'; the message does not always get through to where it's needed.
People die everyday from hoaxers and time-wasters on emergency lines. So unless the public know this isn't a real fire then calls would still go through to the fire department wasting time and potentially endangering lives.

Lombax   01.01.11

God how I love art. The series of comments here do exactly what the artist intended-
(or what Designboom says she intended. I've yet to read her own statement, which may not read like their version of it-) quoted here:
“many lives have been consumed due to years of homelessness, drug abuse, prostitution and violence. 'fire with fire' is intended to bring attention to the derelict history of the sector”
And bob's ur unkle if it didn’t do that, on a much larger scale. The language used to describe the piece’s intention triggered a…um, “passionate discussion”, (with name calling, even!) about larger social issues which are all interrelated, and the images themselves triggered yet another discussion, this time about the State’s obligation to respond to and be bamboozled by the art.
Both discussions were about various levels of social responsibility. Who knew Designboom would be a forum for such a dialogue?
Thank you all, especially Isabelle Hayeur for starting us off. And for creating such astonishing, potent and frighteningly beautiful art.

JoygOlively   01.02.11

This is one of the most interesting calls to action that I've ever seen. People doesn't care about what is happening around them, because I believe they are getting used to the system... This installation it is a way to let people start thinking about what it is happening and to do something about that. This is not stupid as someone have said here, we have to respect different ways of communication... At least it has a good purpose

Nestor   01.02.11

It is each of our responsibilities as we are all one.

gph   01.03.11