Drawing Lines

During my three-week Civic Term course called “Drawing Lines”, we focused on trying to define what public art is. Throughout this course, I saw public art through touring different areas of Chicago such as the Downtown Loop, Pilsen, and Wicker Park. We met with people and organizations such as Nathan Mason from Chicago’s Cultural Center, Katanya from Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, and the Chicago Public Art Group. We studied public art by becoming tour guides in the neighborhoods of Lincoln Park, Downtown Loop, Pilsen, and Wicker Park. We mapped out routes through these different areas. We watched, broke down, and discussed the movie, Style Wars. It's a movie about how graffiti writing and tagging came into existence through hip hop and break dancing influences. The biggest takeaway from this course is the work we did with Rich Alapack of "We All Live Here". He has a mural saying his infamous phrase all throughout Chicago's 77 neighborhoods. Recently, we helped begin the process of putting up a mural at Moody's Pub in Edgewater. Our class put together a coffee table book from thorough research behind artworks by many different artists. Each artwork wasn't just a mural, some were sculptures and even moving digital graphics.

Hiu To. "Beginning We All Live Here Mural".2019

For this action project, we were instructed to make a public art proposal for the Grossinger Toyota and Kia of Lincoln Park. The area surrounding our current school campus doesn't stand out with public art or any exciting colors. Our group decided to focus on the people who make the neighborhood thrive in diversity and wealth; the employees of several businesses throughout Lincoln Park and Near North. Our mural would have to speak to a specific group of people and have a meaning behind it. We also decided what we wanted the public to interpret from the mural.
The part of this action project that I am most proud of is our group's sketch proposal because of the effort and different ideas that went into the finished product.

Here below is our group's mural proposal for Grossinger Toyota/Kia of Lincoln Park.

Hui To. "Mural Proposal." 2019

This art piece is for those who aren't aware of the complex history of the Near Northside. For the last week of class, we were researching Near North Side as it was considered the first "bad" neighborhood in Chicago, and we knew it by its other name, "Little Hell." For a brief history, it housed Italian & german immigrants in 1820 and had multiple gang wars throughout its lifetime. As different groups such as Puerto Rican and African-American entered the community, the original members gave backlash as hard as the could. Groups slowly became neutral and the violence cools down during WWII. After the war, the housing project was fully built and policies were made to segregate the European and African American communities. The Italian city left for the suburbs, and the "Cabrini Green" era was born, bringing back violence not seen since 80-90 years ago. Despite the hard push from the community residents, the city during the 90s decided to destroy the community, pushing gentrification and building "New City." The original residents were relocated with new residents aware of the history of before.

For the project, we went around the neighborhood taking pictures and writing responses from the residents of New City. We found out that most were oblivious to history and didn’t live in the area because it was too expensive. One person considers the area not to be a community because the people living there kept to themselves. Some also didn’t enjoy how the streets felt artificial while others felt great about the neighborhood because of its lack of conflict. It was a contrast between ages because of the overall ignorance of the young. There was also remorse of the Cabrini Green buildings and questions on what happened to its people.

Hui To. "Mural Proposal." 2019

The overall layout of the piece shows the old Cabrini Green on one side being torn down and replaced with a brand new shopping and housing district renamed “Lincoln Park”. Cabrini is portrayed on one side as a place in need of reconstruction with a promise of renewal but as the bottom of that side indicates the former residents were displaced. This low-income housing meant a lot to the occupants and the destruction of it caused much communal dismay as it transferred to what it is now. Lincoln Park as shown, is now a wealthy, confined, and quiet, business, and residential area. The sign at the top of the right side is to show the welcoming of Lincoln Park by the city hoping for an improvement. Moving to the center of the piece we see the church that has seen it all. The church is not meant to be religious in any way, rather it is a centerpiece that tells this whole story in itself. This church during the time of Cabrini was covered with a mural and the building was widely used by the community. The mural was, unfortunately, whitewashed and is only slightly visible through the paint. Though we tried to preserve a likeness to it, the original can never be replaced. Lastly the man in the very middle; The position he is in conveys resilience and sorrow. Resilience was greatly displayed by the people of Cabrini to keep their land and community. Sorrow for only being able to save one building that was eventually neglected by most, but still cherished in the hearts of many.

This piece addresses the needs of the newer residents of Lincoln Park. During several interviews, older residents wanted to know the history and younger residents didn’t care for history. Not only did we show the destruction of Cabrini Green, but also the large brand stores that now sit on top of what used to be. The history of these communities includes these pieces, so the brands are marked on the right, taking away the “homey” feeling that could have been there in Lincon Park. Overall, we tried to address the need for education for the newcomers and remind the old comers of Cabrini. The piece is also a memorial or dedication to what was once known as Cabrini Green and how it was basically almost taken out of existence.