Gang-Proof Suit
Designing a gang-proof suit, WTTW Channel 11 Art Beat Chicago
November 10-28, 2000
Temporary Services "Public Inventions and Interventions"
202 S. State St. Suite 1124 Chicago
January 12- March 4, 2001
Columbia College "PEDAGOGY: Reeling, Writhing, Uglification, & Derision"
The development of this project to design and construct a gang-proof suit began with a series of conversations with youth from the Back of the Yards community of south Chicago. We directed our dialogue to address and, when appropriate, confine selected conditions (power, violence, poverty, abuse) situated within the young people's lives as a primary place to deliberate on what the work could represent. This individual project was not a singular reflection on a neighborhood disorder cited simply through the moderate descriptions and images that stand in for them. The extended exploration through the many months remained a conscious examination of that space in between the reality of a community's troubles and the young person negotiation of home. A space that requires thoughtful study of what remains inescapable in the lives of unsuspecting young people who have limited opportunities to understand and confront that which is often internalized. The conversations regarding the suit continued for two years which shaped a practice of creating work solely in response to our young people's questions. The youth researched the particular components of what visually represented a protective and complete urban outfit that could be worn and withstand stray gun fire while walking to school.
www.temporaryservices.org/si_gang_proof_suit.html
Project Objectives
