Terrain Biennial Extra Projects, Avondale The Franklin, Garfield Park Jennifer Mannebach, Oak Park
This work plays with a rainbow spectrum of colored plastics onto a chain-link fence to transform and examine the sheer density of chain fencing on the west side, an area bifurcated by development and disinvestment. It as an architectural material creates a psychic mass that is distinct from other parts of the city, acting as an overlay that can sometimes be very tense as citizens contend and participate with every day.
The vibrating, reflective color and material aims to entertain the neighborhood residents who pass by in hopes to give a sort of release with the unexpected environmental change with the moment of visual play that abstracts and reflects the materiality of the street. At the same time, the work probes the social and economic systems that shape communities, and issues of class, race, and gender that lie beneath its pattern repeat- mapping out local migrations and economies of our urban life. The work investigates the conditions of new urban landscapes, including the effects of gentrification, renewal, and violence in the city.