The Real Faces of the Royal Borough: from academic research to art exhibition

the paper introduces the exhibition, the real faces of the royal borough. this touring exhibition combines digital portraiture by artist nevada lynn and research on gentrification and displacement by urban geographer sharda rozena. by focusing on the individual lives and experiences of twelve residents from kensington and chelsea, we highlight the everyday impact of gentrification in this london borough, including displacement, transient community, high costs of living and unaffordable rents. the portraits help us to humanise the housing crisis and increase people’s awareness of the injustices that arise from the ongoing gentrification of the royal borough. the real faces of the royal borough is a portrait exhibition of twelve residents from kensington and chelsea, featured alongside their experiences of housing displacement and gentrification. the vibrant and colourful portraiture (printed on brushed aluminium) was designed and illustrated by nevada lynn, an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works on the shared, unceded traditional territory of the skwxwú7mesh nation and the lilwat7úl nation in whistler, british columbia, canada. the research on gentrification and the quotes from participants originated from a phd thesis conducted by sharda rozena, an urban geographer from kensington, west london. a chance meeting in vancouver in january 2022 was where sharda and nevada both discussed their shared motivation for using their work as a means towards social justice. nevada uses her creative practice to also serve in the realms of climate justice and indigenous sovereignty, while sharda is engaged in activism by highlighting those who are most affected by gentrification-induced displacement. consequently, they decided to collaborate on an exhibition that gave sharda’s housing research a human face.