A Protest Bouquet for Rahm Emanuel
*This gallery contains documentation of several works including screenshots of articles and viral Tweets:
Being a “political artist” can eat you up inside. But when you are political and an artist and a culture journalist ( I was one) in Chicago, there are consequences to your actions. Puerto Rico and Chicago have similar histories of corruption. One of the reasons I why I loved (love) Chi has to do with its socio-political similares.
When Rahm Emanuel was gone, I felt a sense of relief. I made works using him as a corrupt muse. At the time I felt my writing was part of my art. I called my art visual essays because my exhibitions were like expanded footnotes or field notations. The pieces originated from the edited parts. Be it in a painting, fake announcements, wall drawings, Twitter components, posters or flyers, etc. I would get messages often from a few Chicago art stars including Dawoud asking me to behave. I didn’t, of course.
The only time I wrote for Artforum was a Scene and Herd on Expo Chicago. I promised I would behave, not be political or mention Rahm Emanuel or the public school protests. I couldn’t help it. It was the last time I wrote for them. When Rahm came up with his Architecture Biennial to white wash his image, one Pulitzer winner at Trib wrote that Rahm’s Arch Biennial “can sweep under the rug racial tensions.”
If I had written that, all hell would break loose. I wasn’t always right. But I always kept my integrity. The society writer for Artforum wrote more outrageous privileged atrocities on Chicago’s “racial tensions” throughout the years.
1. 16 Shots and a Cover Up: Protest flyer (and viral campaign via Twitter) distributed freely during the protests and the Art Book fair in LA.
2. Protest Bouquet for Rahm Emanuel. (2015)
Acrylic and sharpie on purposely ripped, knotted and layered ripped canvas. The canvas has two layers. One is a painting, and the second layer is drawing of the Sears (Willis*) Tower.
Collection of Lynn Basa in Chicago
3. A Visual Essay on Prentice’s Ghost
Photo piece and wall collage
Exhibited at the Portrait Society in 2015
