I used to work in luxury retail in Circular Quay. I’ve just quit. I’m now in teaching. I teach visual arts and I’m enjoying it. It’s not somewhere I could have imagined myself but now that I’m there, it’s working.

The clients I used to serve had exorbitant wealth. The way they used their wealth was to spend it on consumerist goods that were friggin ugly. It was repulsive. And I think that’s increasingly so the culture of the city.

In those spaces there’s an unusual and uneasy tension. You can get drawn in to the luxury of the environment and mentality but you have to make a choice to maintain your groundedness and remember the reality of the situation. It’s kind of like a virtual world where you can forget about what’s happening 20ks of the city.

SCENT

leather, coal, used money, rose, grass

By

B Keong