Portfolio > Bold Disobedience, Weinberg Newton Gallery Chicago 2017

By Ways & Means
By Ways & Means
Chain Link Fencing
Dimension Variable Modular System
2017

A chain-link is an object devoid of color, scaled-down to simple shapes and lines, and abstracted by a repeated pattern. It is a gritty and sobering architectural object surrounding private property that becomes charged abstracted by a repeated pattern when taken out of context and put into a gallery space. It is embedded with narratives of the city’s landscape that leads from a trip from home to school this architectural object folds in multiple meanings beyond gentrification. It also speaks to special justice alluding to the prison industrial complex and restricted borders.

This project addresses the socioeconomic melting pot that is Chicago. It holds a layout of pathways that become layered and visually complicated, signifying the overwhelming nature of social and economic systems that shape communities. Each piece in the show is embedded with narratives of the city’s landscape and encourages the audience to consider issues of class and race that lie beneath capitalist systems.

The gallery space contains a layout of pathways that become layered and visually complicated. This visual queue signifies overwhelming issues of the social and economic systems that shape communities and leads the audience to consider the issues of class and race that lie beneath capitalist systems.

The pathways and shapes are syncopated around the gallery, along with a relief fence installed on the gallery wall. This fence appears to struggle against the wall, pulling away from it, its chain-link bent and misshapen. These systems fashion a relational experience of life walking through the intimate experiences of spaces in Chicago, moving from home to neighborhood to school.