Скачать или смотреть Artist uses work to beautify downtrodden Caracas

(7 Nov 2020) A Venezuelan visual artist is seeking to bring a touch of beauty to abandoned and damaged public spaces in Caracas, a South American city plunged into poverty and chaos after decades of neglect.
The billboards of vandalized bus stops in Venezuela's capital - which no one seeks to fix due to the lack of investment to attract potential advertisers - have become a gallery of sorts for painter Susan Applewhite, who hangs her works in the hope of awakening emotions and give instant joy while evading the harsh reality of the surroundings.
At the makeshift atelier she installed in the driveway of her family's house, Applewhite paints the shapes of various objects made of recycled cardboard that will soon belong in the street.
"It's to transform it a little bit and give it a little bit of light, to let it shine, a little bit of beauty - which is the function of decoration," says the 44-year-old of her urban art project.
"But the bottom line of my work is to give a message and make people a little happy. To distract them."
Applewhite also notes that her works conveys the metaphor that those materials that end up in the garbage can be reused to bring hope and beauty.
It carries the message that it is possible to look beyond the situation in a city overwhelmed by rising crime, high inflation, poverty and a general deterioration of public infrastructure.
The use of bus stops, mostly in ruins, as her display spaces is no accident.
These structures lost their shine and symbolize the remains of a civic order left in oblivion due to disrespect for the laws, many times in the face of the complicit gaze of the authorities, she says.
Her works attempt to beautify the vandalized billboards and make public bus stops more pleasant for commuters.

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