Chicago Turns a Corner

Board -Up Mural on Wabash Ave. & Harrison St.

25’x8’ (200 square feet)

Artist

Date Created: June 13, 2020

Location: The Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin’ Robbins franchise on Wabash Ave. and Harrison St. ; visible to riders on the Orange and Green Line trains

Worked alongside a team of artists who painted board-up art on the full 600 block of S. Wabash

“Chicago Turns a Corner” was created in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in theme and in action by providing support to small businesses in the South Loop following the civil unrest in protest of George Floyd’s murder. By adding beauty to the block, the art encouraged community members to continue to offer patronage to the struggling businesses. In theme, the painting testifies that the public outcry was requisite to effect real change and upholds the urgency of the protesters’ messaging against the systematic and brutal racism embedded within law enforcement in America.

This dual-planed piece is meant to affect viewers in motion.

When a viewer turns or passes by the corner— or views from the L train as its track curves— the landscape’s palette is ineffaceably altered. Chicago’s downtown skyline remains an unbroken throughline connecting both sections— one, united city— but the two walls differ starkly.

The monochromatic left plane illustrates mistakes and wrongs in Chicago’s past and present; the corner acts as the seismic societal shift set in motion following Mr. Floyd’s murder; the colorful right plane envisions our city’s vibrant future as one made to be peaceful and equitable for all Chicagoans. Black lives matter.

It is the physical action of the viewer moving which enacts the change in perspective and allows the painting to come into full view.