Since 2023, Between the Cracks has served as a long-term visual ethnographic investigation into the radical spatial restructuring and human cost of urban redevelopment across Shenzhen’s urban villages. Focusing on the heavily impacted enclaves of Yuanfen, Longqiu, Pingshan, Aoxia, and eventually expanding to Baimang—the epicenter of the 2023 redevelopment protests—and Baishizhou, this project documents the friction between state-led modernization and grassroots survival. Under the impetus of the "Unified Rental Housing" policy, massive gentrification initiatives have triggered widespread displacement, disrupting local resident ecosystems and small economies while driving rental prices in these historically affordable enclaves up by approximately 50%.
Moving beyond conventional documentary, the work juxtaposes stark environmental portraits with ironic architectural landscapes captured amidst the debris. It archives the precarious daily realities of children, the elderly, and migrant workers navigating impending displacement. Within the hyper-modern mythos of Shenzhen as a "city of dreams," Between the Cracks presents a critical inquiry into spatial justice, ultimately asking: whose dreams are being materialized, and who is being systematically pushed out from the cracks of the urban landscape?
???? The complete longitudinal photographic series, rich contextual captions, and full digital archive are publicly accessible on the artist's official portfolio website: https://kossychen.cargo.site/between-the-cracks-1
(Note: The dimensions specified in the form represent the individual print size. The complete series consists of 16 comprehensive images intended for a modular visual archival installation.)
