Overview
[Note: This parody website and its content is best viewed in conjunction with Westbank's original 'Fight for Beauty' website here.]
Westbank is not a cultural practice. Period. It’s simply a real estate development company that thinks way too much of itself.
Westbank wants to use their pretentious self-curated exhibition 'Fight for Beauty' to define for us what culture is and craft the false narrative that they are cultural warriors of Vancouver. But this is impossible because culture cannot be defined or wholly championed by any one person or corporation. Culture is more than skin-deep beauty. Culture is humanity, heritage, language, arts, customs and more. Culture is organically created and championed by the people, not a single corporation, and definitely not Westbank. Through 'Fight for Beauty', Westbank is co-opting the arts for PR purposes, while artists are being economically and physically displaced in Vancouver due to unaffordability perpetuated by real estate development companies like Westbank.
‘The Real Fight for Beauty’ is a satirical digital exhibition parodying Westbank’s ‘Fight for Beauty’ exhibition. ‘The Real Fight for Beauty’ offers a glimpse into the world and real fights in Vancouver that ego-centric real estate developers are ignorant of. It is an attempt to express the evolution of how developers are taking over Vancouver and share the journey of regular people rising up to fight against “big brother’s” agenda. The exhibition describes the enormous grassroots effort Vancouverites continue to pour into the ongoing real fight for beauty and affordability in their neighbourhoods, while Westbank astroturfs.
In ‘The Real Fight for Beauty’, we are attempting to encapsulate Vancouverites and their real fights for people-centred city-building that have come to define Vancouver. You will see visual evidence and artifacts of grassroots movements undertaken by regular Vancouverites who are fed up with the destruction of their culture and the damage that real estate companies have done to Vancouver. In recent history, Vancouverites rose up to fight against Beedie’s condo tower rezoning at 105 Keefer in Chinatown, an important cultural and heritage neighbourhood in Vancouver. Each of these real fights for beauty demonstrate in a profound way that people are the real guardians of culture.
We hope you enjoy our take on what the real fight for beauty means in Vancouver and that you are able to experience some of the influences that have shaped the city.
Let’s continue and stop Westbank.
#FightForBeauty
When did we say yes to beauty being
discarded deleted and demeaned
by real estate developers
like Westbank?
Where is the agreement
that beauty must be defined
by the pretentious vision
of one CEO?
Since when have we learned
the price of beauty
is set by how much money
a company can throw at a self-curated exhibition
about an empty fight for nothing
but cash?
How could we have missed
that beauty is in the eye of the beholder
not a corporate-bought substance that makes it way
through a blanket of ads to come after our
senses in full force
to craft a fake narrative
that Vancouver is not beautiful
unless Westbank makes luxury condos?
Because we, the people of Vancouver, have not signed up.
Westbank. Stop pretending you’re fighting for beauty.
The real fights are by the people.