Untitled (Entanglement series #8182-11 Zoning) copyright 2019/2023 Douglas Stockdale –
My Entanglement project that gained a Critical Mass 2023 Finalist recognition continues to evolve and morph. It has changed to the point that there is still a slight visual resemblance, but now with a stronger emotional and visual edge. Concurrently, I am continuing to learn more about how extensive segregation was practiced by the conservatives (noting that in the current main steam news, these two attributes appear to be interchangeable terms) through the history of the United States. That at one point of being formalized and ‘regulated’ in the 1930’s, while now subtly hiding in the background undercover. Thus, I am finding that my Entanglement project has put me on a civic engagement enlightenment track.
Civic engagement refers to anything related to a city or community. It can refer to the people who live in a particular city or the activities that take place within that community, such as making necessary governmental changes for the good of everyone. Civil, on the other hand, refers to the behavior or attitudes of individuals within a society. Civil refer to the way people treat each other, their level of politeness, and their adherence to laws and regulations.
At the moment, my Entanglement series is metaphorically exposing the redlining that occurred not only in Southern California, but extensively through out the United States, in the 1930’s as a formal process by banks, lenders, real estate brokers and organizations to allow highly segregated practices. Interestingly, redlining was not something that was out in the open for public awareness, but conducted behind closed doors. Individuals and families may not have known why it is they were steered to live in specific communities, were unable to obtain a competitive mortgage at a decent rate or why there were specific and/or restrictive conditions placed on their loans. This was in conjunction with other segregation practice such as city zoning, that allows high density, low income housing to occur in very specific areas, while low density homes and green belts were partitioned off in other areas of the city.
When searching for current examples of where the segregation practices still lurk under the radar, it turns out that after the Supreme Court defeated the formal aspects of segregation in the 1960’s, another subtle segregation methodology in addition to zoning was created by the conservatives known as Home Owner Associations (HOA). The subtly is that rather than implement racist ideology directly, an HOA did so by using ‘economics’. Those communities that are govern by an HOA were also those families who had more wealth. One such HOA variation is where those living in a restricted community must also have a certain amount of reserved savings. It is an economic hurdle that is very prohibitive to low income families who have not amassed that type of wealth, who are also typically marginalized minorities.
This is another metaphoric reason that in my hand-sewn cyanotypes, similar to the one above, have the red-line sewn off the image border into the adjacent margins; that although the formal redlining may have occurred in the past, be warned, subtle versions of segregation are still lingering today…
As a result of my own enlightenment, I have started to rethink where and how I would like to exhibit this body of work. An interesting development that I had not anticipated occurring.
Untitled (Entanglement series #8182-11 Zoning) copyright 2019/2023, hand-sewn cyanotype image is 9 x 9″ on a 11 x 14″ sheet of Revere Platinum hot press cotton rag. Variable edition of 5 + 1AP.
Make every day an Earth Day
Doug
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Book development workshop:
Update: Developing a Creative Photo Book, on Zoom with SouthEast Center for Photography (SEC4P), January 20 & 21st and 27th, & 28th, 2024, from 10 AM – 1 PM, Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Artist book available again:
The Flow of Light Brushes the Shadow, an artist book from Singular Images Press, 2022, $60.00 (CA sales tax for those residing in the USA) plus shipping expenses. Message me douglas.stockdale.artist@gmail.com
Singular Images 
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