Smooth City: Against Urban Perfection, Towards Collective Alternatives Jewellery Focusing on four decades

Focusing on four decades

*The essay by Skye Arundhati Thomas was first published in the exhibition catalogue Lawrence Abu Hamdan: The Voice Before The Law

no matter the scale

Barry Schwabsky and Nancy Spector

Smooth City: Against Urban Perfection, Towards Collective Alternatives Jewellery Focusing on four decadesIn cities across the world, a new urban condition is spreading rapidly: an ever increasing push toward efficiency, sanitization, surveillance and the active eradication of any aberration, friction or alternative. From Dubai, Hong Kong and London to Amsterdam and Cairo, the smooth city, with its gated communities and theme park zones, insidiously transforms urban life into seamless "experience." While the demand for safe, clean and well functioning