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Email a friendHelping to empower Scotland's homeless
AN art book that confronts the social issue of begging in Aberdeen may sound like a strange concept, but, for editors Eva Merz and Bob Steadman, it is part of a quest to rebuild society from the ground up, using arts as a tool.
It has an exceptional political social approach and uses art as a sparingly sprinkled spice to complement and illustrate the project's purpose without distracting from it.
Funded by the Scottish Arts Council and supported by the Peacock Visual Art Centre, Merz and Steadman compiled 12 verbatim recorded and printed interviews with the beggars, Big Issue vendors, a project worker from the Cyrenians, the mother of a heroin addict and a street worker for publication in this book.
Pencil drawings, excerpts of news reports from the Evening Express and quotes from Patti Smith to Alexander Trocchi are all used to put the interviews into a social and political context.
The book clearly disrupts local politicians' aims to ban begging in public places and it adds to the discourse about the increased privatisation and commercialisation of public places.
It exposes the flaws of the social system of neoliberal capitalism - the lack of quality council housing, homeless shelters and drugs rehabilitation places make jail an attractive and warm place to be.
The book exposes myths and cliches about beggars by giving a voice to the voiceless and is as much about initiating understanding of society's classes towards each other as it is about empowering the lowest caste in Scottish society.
ULLA SCHOTT