Jane Addams Hull-House Museum will host “Into Body Into Wall,” an art installation with Maria Gaspar and 96 Acres. The title of the exhibit emerges from Palestinian American writer, Suheir Hummad’s poem, break (vista), which contemplates the ways in which walls are structures of oppression around the world. 96 Acres is a series of community-engaged, site-responsive art projects that involve community stakeholders’ ideas about social and restorative justice issues, and that examine the impact of incarceration at the Cook County Jail on Chicago’s West Side. In collaboration with JAHHM, 96 Acres and artist Maria Gaspar will use installation and public programs to investigate the jail wall as a social, political, psychological and physical frame, imagine and reflect on new alternatives, and grapple with personal stories from both sides of the jail wall. The project looks at architectures of power and incarceration and imagines alternative uses of space.
Biography of Speaker/Presenter:
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum serves as a dynamic memorial to social reformer Jane Addams, the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and her colleagues whose work changed the lives of their immigrant neighbors as well as national and international public policy. The museum preserves and develops the original Hull-House site for the interpretation and continuation of the historic settlement house vision, linking research, education, and social engagement. Maria Gaspar's artistic practice negotiates matters of space and power. 96 Acres uses multi-disciplinary practices to explore the social and political implications of incarceration on communities of color. Through creative processes and coalition building, 96 Acres aims to generate alternative narratives reflecting on power and responsibility by presenting insightful and informed collective responses for the transformation of a space that occupies 96 acres, but has a much larger reaching outcome.
