This relatively new beveled glass technique that Australian street artist Fintan Magee is using has reached an outstanding, almost psychedelic quality – bending light and visual perception in a way we’ve not seen. Here in Sydney his newest painting of the blurred figure of youth is present and immediate, yet hard to capture, somehow distant.

This new mural called “The Riders” on the Alexandria Hotel is meant to highlight the transient and quick nature of bicycle riders, young ones at that. The metaphor is a parallel for him to the rapid pace of real estate development in this city and others that easily displaces the families who live in some neighborhoods so they can collect large rents from the richer among us. In search of a quick buck, this kind of work is often aided by backroom dealing and ignorance of basic principles of urban planning.

He speaks of the fear and uncertainty that this rapacious development strikes in people’s lives, “leaving many low-income families worried they will be pushed out of the area.”

Another aspect of Sydney’s gentrification he says is that a new, richer, downtown center is developing that is only affordable by more established, older folks – discouraging the next generations from coming to the city to grow community and business prospects for the future.

“The cities working young are ignored by housing policy and pushed further into the suburbs, creating a disconnect between its most productive residents and economic opportunity.”

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