3D-Rendered Visions of Dystopia Inspired by the Housing Market Crash

Tim Portlock, “Salon” (2011), archival pigment print, 54 x 72 inches (all images courtesy the artist and Locks Gallery)

My most intense experience with Portlock’s work was at his last show at Vox Populi,11th_St_City_Symphony.mp4, before leaving the Philadelphia artist collective in 2013. It featured a single computer-rendered 3D animation of the view from the gallery’s windows, which were situated directly behind the viewer as you watched. In the animation, you see Philadelphia’s swift gentrification unfold in a matter of minutes. Vox is one of a number of artist galleries in what’s known as the “319 Building,” for its address at 319 N. 11th Street. The neighborhood is known by several names: Callowhill, Chinatown North, the Eraserhood (after Eraserhead, as it was David Lynch’s college stomping ground), and, more recently, it’s been rebranded by developers as “the Loft District” for its large industrial buildings that are being converted into luxury lofts, thereby placing the future of the 319 Building, and all the galleries and artist studios in it, in a precarious position.

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