Briefing 2024 – 10 x 8 x 7cm, wood, spray paint, firm modelling clay, plexiglass, glue, board
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening –
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot
Across the UK Freeport committees have set up websites with the glossy brochure version of SEZ/Freeport status that promises ‘growth, innovation, net zero targets, and prosperity’, they go to great lengths to state that ‘little will change’ in terms of the dangers free zones often cause to local infrastructure; environmental pollution, compulsory purchase orders, tax evasion, land-grabbing, private sector hegemony, drugs/weapons/people trafficking, modern-day slavery, and so on. Free zone laws and regulations are commonly deregulated where companies are effectively allowed to ‘self-regulate’ under a different system than the host country. The free zone committees rarely reply to Freedom of Information applications (FOIs), or come back heavily redacted as being ‘commercially sensitive’.