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Mrs Hodge's frequent use of air freshener

In 1968 Ronan Point, a high rise social housing block in East London, UK was badly damaged by an explosion due to a gas leak which resulted in a loss of lives. This gave rise to concerns about the safety and structural weaknesses inherent in this kind of architecture. However in 2004 the focus of attention shifted toward the growing social tensions in similar blocks of flats were squatters had moved into vacant flats, often these were recently arrived homeless immigrants. This mix of residents and squatters generated acts of violence and aggression within the community of the high rise. But within this situation there was the desire to maintain a sense of cultural identity whilst being displaced and the object of racial abuse. This microcosm of conflict between different groups within a relatively confined space becomes a reflection upon the global phenomena of migration.

“Underlying Farhid’s interest in the media and the politics of popular culture, (once seen as a critical intervention into the elitism of high culture but now firmly embraced into the mainstream), is her own position as a political refugee, forced to live outside her own Iranian culture. Her video ‘Mrs Hodges frequent use of air freshener’ uses the tower block as a metaphor for the breakdown of communication in the space of media overload, this form of social housing already accepted as politically and conceptually redundant becomes the locus for a collection, albeit isolated from one another, of ‘lost souls’ victims of another failed ideological system. Here Farhid’s coming from the outside, rejecting Islamic totalitarianism as experienced in Iran is also critical of the residues of late capitalism, the implication being that there is the potential for a new form of politics” 1
1 ‘Generator 1&2 Foreign, New International curatorial research west Midland