One inspiration in particular stood out and seemed to encapsulate the others that I was interested in, it was ubiquitous and an item in demand. This particular post-it idea was written as CHICKEN BOX. There was something in that there chicken I thought. This was a special object in front of me, yet no one else had seen it in my own unique way. I became mesmerised like I had discovered an old treasure, realising how it may be important and the message it might possibly convey.
In the area that I live many residents complain about the amount of youths hanging around their flats. I can hear when they arrive for the day as chatter filters through the letter box. They have nowhere else to go, and although the other residents do not greet them, no one dare risks a confrontation, so they keep hanging around and everyone seems to rub along. Many of them are harmless and just looking for a focal point to meet their friends and hang out away from the cramped conditions of their own family residences. They tend to be in their late teens and of Bengali origin. They have a special and unique habit to all gangs, of hanging out in front of other people’s homes, eating chicken wings and fries, spitting, laughing, sometimes smoking marijuana. The thing that really gets the residents’ backs up is the rubbish left around afterwards, such as animal bones, empty bottles, spits, chewing gum and packaging. This packaging nearly always includes the chicken box. These boxes are continuously changing, of varying different designs and portion sizes depending on which take-away shop they have been brought from, but they are usually red, yellow or orange, containing a flame design with some sort of chicken portrait.
The chicken box seemed to be the gang's derivative symbol, and anti-social behaviour their demonstration of intimidation and deprivation. Dealing with this problem in the community would be difficult, and the only way to approach it would be to try and communicate with them in a different fashion from how the other residents reacted. I would need to use their own youthful language and show them that a money driven society is not always the most important aspect of life. On closer inspection I thought that the way forward would be through the food that they ate, and in particular the ‘throw away’ packaging that the food was carried in.
My own little adventure with a junk food and the chicken box. Behind the scene, in the hands of the warm home. Shame not to be closer and involved, but at least more civilising??
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