Pubdate: Fri, 14 May 2004
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Copyright: 2004 The Edmonton Journal
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Jeff Holubitsky

TOUGH, ANGRY ART BY YOUNG ADDICTS

Sculpture Depicts Dangers Of Street Life

EDMONTON - Their art is as tough as the streets where they live.

The 40 or so young people who have documented their lives with frightening 
realism in a collaborative project in a rundown inner-city building live 
tough lives, make no mistake.

The centrepiece of their artwork project is a sculpture, standing about 
11/2 metres high. It consists of lengths of metal rod, woven together like 
the mesh of a giant fence.

The paraphernalia of street life is attached to the frame, looking at first 
like a bunch of junk: worn shoes, old bandannas, screwdrivers, hatchets, 
machetes and pry bars.

They are tools of the trade for the regulars at the centre.

The shoes, because these 14- to 24-year-olds have to keep walking to find 
enough to steal to support their drug habits. The bandannas, in various 
shades, proclaim their affiliation with different "families" on the street.

The tools are both weapons and "keys to the city" that allow them to enter 
locked buildings and cars, almost at will, to scratch up enough money to 
support their habits.

Perhaps most chilling are pointed clear plastic shards, designed to look 
similar to crystal meth, the drug of choice for most. Buried within the 
acrylic are knifes, drug pipes, pepper spray, spoons for freebasing 
cocaine, condoms, cellphones, counterfeit money, syringes (called rigs) 
filled with liquid cocaine and actual packets of meth itself.

"They all wanted to do something to express their addictions," says Wallis 
Kendal, whose iHuman Society organized the art project. He is perhaps most 
widely known as one of the artists who crafted the controversial Gun 
Sculpture, but for decades he has also devoted most of his time to helping 
troubled young people.

Get them to tell their stories any way they can, he says, and you've at 
least started a conversation.

"This is like a dirty fence or a fence with all of the (crap) thrown 
against it," Kendal says. "And the idea of the shards came from a drawing 
one of the kids did when he was on meth ... you'd have to use a jackhammer 
to get this stuff out, it is really safe in there."

The 40 to 50 young people who show up at the graffiti-covered centre, the 
ones who tell their sad, angry stories on aluminum plaques meant to 
accompany the sculpture, have not put their troubles behind them -- 
although some are trying.

"Most of these kids started drugs at 12 or 13 years of age," Kendal says, 
while rap music pounds in the background. "And we have a United Nations 
here. There are people here from the best families of Edmonton."

The centre is visited by white, black, aboriginal and Asian youth. Some 
bring their own small children. Others try to hide their weepy, red-rimmed 
eyes by looking away, but the effects of recent drug use is obvious. They 
aren't ready for help yet, but who knows, when they are, they'll be in the 
right place.

The iHuman Society has two paid social workers on hand at the centre to get 
young addicts into rehab or to help recovering addicts find therapy or 
decent places to live.

Carla, 19, has lived on the street for six years. She doesn't use drugs as 
much as she used to, but still likes to "party it up" occasionally.

"I moved downtown and met some people and we were like one big family and 
we looked after each other," she says. "We'll always be part of a big 
family but I don't go out on the streets anymore, because I can't handle it."

A friend first brought her to the centre and, so far, she keeps coming back.

Her friend Gabrielle Rodgers, 19, was an addict for 41/2 years before 
giving up drugs last December. While in rehab, she made a papier mache 
death mask signed with her street name, Scary Keri -- a violent persona she 
hopes is laid to rest forever.

"When you are high on meth, usually you hurt a lot of people because you 
are really angry," she says. "So I kicked a lot of windows in."

She has lived in doorways, parkades, and abandoned buildings. When she 
needed money, she broke into cars or vending machines.

"I walked long distances, every day, everything was crime to me," she says. 
"I've been in jail."

Rodgers now has her own place in a building run by a social services 
agency, and is trying to put her life together.

"After I dropped out in Grade 10, I started doing drugs," she says. "Not 
necessarily crystal meth, but weed and alcohol, I believe, are the gateway."

While she has made progress, she's still not ready for the middle-class 
life she once had.

"When you get off drugs you can't just move back into normal life," she 
says. "My mom used to try to get me back home but there was nothing she 
could do."

That's a tough message for a parent to hear. But no tougher than the art 
Rodgers helped create.

SEEKING HOME

I want to go home but I honestly don't know where home is. I remember when 
I was high and helpless, I'd wish for home. When I went through withdrawal 
I screamed for home. I thought I was disillusioned then and now, when I 
have stood my ground, accepted and pushed my limits, I still stand here 
looking for home. I've looked in all the familiar places, changed and lost 
to me. How long ago was it that home came easy? Where am I going now? What 
am I hungering for? Did I bring this on myself? My whole life I've always 
taken the other road; sure the road home would always be there. Now it 
appears that with so many bends, forks, backtracking, I'm lost.

- -- from one of many plaques accompanying the latest iHuman youth art project
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom