Edward de Souza

Brisbane (Meanjin) based artist Edward de Souza explores the anxiety of individuals being powerless against the exponential growth of cities. Architecture often dominates by prioritising profitability over liveability. His works resist this de-humanisation.
While the work can be entrancing, it unsettles and exposes the sometimes-sinister nature underpinning urban architecture. A flood of residential real-estate advertisements exposes their cookie cutter format – the extent of which is emphasised by their sheer mass. However, overlaying hypnotic soundscapes and fetishist content, he explores a contradiction in desire. A contradiction in our desire for community, comfort and a home, against a desire for cold, formulaic and isolating architecture.