An art installation called "The Back 9" is planned for Los Angeles' Skid Row to tackle the issues of gentrification, zoning, and back room deals for development rights.
The opening paragraph of an article by Linda Poon has to be read for itself and then probably reread to let it sink in:
Los Angeles’ newest miniature golf course will not be like any other. Instead of safari-themed obstacle courses, this one will feature edifices that address the city’s zoning issues. Oh, and it will sit right inside Skid Row, a neighborhood that has the densest concentration of homeless people in the country.
Educational artist Rosten Woo and the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) collaborated on the project, which is planned for exhibition at the Skid Row Museum in 2017. The installation received a $50,000 grant from the Mike Kelley Foundation, according to Poon.
Poon quotes John Malpede, founder and artistic director of LAPD, to describe the ideas behind "The Back 9," as the installation is called. The name refers to the golf format of the installation as well as the use of that term to describe clandestine conversations.
It’s a fitting name, Malpede says, because the project is all about transparency. “Are [zoning] decisions going to be made ‘on the back 9,’ or are they going to happen in a public process in which [decisions] aren’t predetermined by the time they’re public?”
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