Billboard by Irish artist demands ‘Stop the Goodroomification of Dublin!’

It can be hard to put into words exactly what’s happening to Dublin at the moment.

Gentrification? Hotellification? Yassification? Who can really say.

Artist Jack McKeon has fairly hit the nail on the head with his new billboard outside the Project Arts Centre, which reads “Stop the Goodroomification of Dublin!”

The work is inspired by the “Irish phenomenon of the Good Room” – the part of the house which was always off limits to those actually living there, reserved only for important guests like the GP or local priest. The type of visits the USA biscuit tin was always taken out for, before being rapidly swept away and stored in an unreachable cupboard as soon as said guest took their leave.

With this in mind, along with the steady replacement of public and cultural spaces with hotels and chains in Dublin, this eye-catching billboard, which is part of the Project’s Whip it Up & Start Again commission series was born.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgeX9caOfEL/?hl=en

Artist Jack said of the work:

While we no longer not put rooms aside for visits by doctors or priests, Dublin city council still rampantly puts public space aside for hotel chains and multinationals at the expense of those living in, or trying to live, in Dublin. With more and more cultural spaces being eroded and living costs pricing us out of the city, it’s starting to seem like we “can look but not touch”, as was the rule in any Good Room. 

Using kitschy objects typically found in a mid-century Irish Good Room (an antique lampshade in this case), I am criticising the absurd ‘Goodroomification’ of Dublin. I am also encouraging a conversation around ownership of Dublin and have created a call to arms to protect it from further deterioration into a gaudy shell of its formerly vibrant self.

The billboard will be on display outside the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar for the next four weeks.

Header image via Instagram/projectartscentre

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