In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration
February 15 to May 10, 2020 at the Chicago Cultural Center
Please note: As COVID-19 is spread through close proximity, the City of Chicago has joined the State of Illinois in issuing a Stay at Home order. The Chicago Cultural Center is closed and all in-person events and tours are canceled until further notice. In this time of uncertainty, anxiety, and suffering, we each are affected differently. Please see our COVID-19 response page for resources.
6018North developed this show out of solidarity to highlight the importance of immigrant and artistic labor. Now is no different as much of the front-line COVID-19 labor is being done by immigrants and people of color. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that life is constantly IN FLUX and that we are all interconnected and not divided.
In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration is a continuation of the 2018-2020 project Living Architecture – a large-scale, multidisciplinary exhibition, with public programming including performances, tours, workshops, and conversational dinners that highlight the influence and impact of immigrant artists on Chicago. In Flux responds to the current political climate to highlight how Chicago was built with immigrant labor, particularly in the arts, and is continuously shaped today by exemplary immigrant artists.
Featured artists include: Alberto Aguilar, Kioto Aoki, Amanda Assaley and Qais Assali, Yesenia Bello, Tom Burtonwood and Maryam Taghavi, Derek Chan, Eugenia Cheng, Julietta Cheung, Sabba Elahi, William Estrada, Silvia Gonzalez with Joseph Josue Mora and Patricia Nguyen, Óscar I González Díaz, Lise Haller Baggesen, Rodrigo Lara Zendejas, Benjamin Larose, Kirsten Leenaars, Wen Liu, Yvette Mayorga, Frédéric Moffet, Sherwin Ovid, Roni Packer, Emilio Rojas, Moises Salazar, Jan Tichy, Orkideh Torabi, Ji Yang, and others. For additional images of the installation, please visit the City of Chicago Department of Culture Affairs and Special Events.
We hope that you, your loved ones, friends, and neighbors are staying safe and healthy during this unprecedented, universal response to the virus. We hope that all who are suffering - whether near or distant - recover quickly and completely. For those staying at home, thank you for doing this for others. To help guide us through this unprecedented time, we have reached out to our amazing group of artists. Please join in these on-line events to spatially, not socially distance.
Past Events
Please enjoy these recorded discussions from virtual tours of In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration with the artists as they walk you through the exhibition currently quarantined at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Visit the 6018North YouTube Playlist for recorded discussions with Alberto Aguilar, Kioto Aoki, Amanda Assaley and Qais Assali, Yesenia Bello, Tom Burtonwood, Julietta Cheung, Sabba Elahi, Silvia Gonzalez, Óscar I González Díaz, Lise Haller Baggesen, Rodrigo Lara Zendejas, Wen Liu, Emilio Rojas, and Jan Tichy.
Townhall Discussion with Caroline Ng and Ji Yang – April 24, 2020
Join Caroline and Ji in a town hall discussion of xenophobia, racism, and ‘otherness’ as it relates to Chinese people and people of East Asian and Southeast Asian backgrounds during the COVID-19 pandemic. View on YouTube.
Mask-Making Sewing Workshop with Aram Han Sifuentes – April 25, 2020
Make masks with Aram Han Sifuentes on Zoom. Bring needle and thread or sewing machine, pre-washed cotton fabrics, bias tape or elastic (you can use hair bands, ribbons, shoelaces, etc), nose wire (you can use any wire, pipe cleaners, bag ties), ruler and scissors. No experience required. Aram's masks are donated to Cook County Jail inmates. View on YouTube.
Kolektiv Goluboy Vagon (Коллектив Голубой Вагон) – May 2, 2020
Kolektiv Goluboy Vagon zine launch explored de-assimilation and co-liberatory practices across the queer Soviet Jewish Diaspora, with a tea drinking ritual rooted in queer Soviet and Jewish tradition. Order Kolektiv Goluboy Vagon Issue 01.
“Table-reading” with Amanda Assaley and Qais Assali – May 8, 2020
Join this participatory performance by Amanda Assaley and Qais Assali as they explore language and mistranslation as it pertains to their work Ahl Al Medinah, Shurafa’ Al Ayn, 2018. View on YouTube.
OTVReruns x 6018North – May 8, 2020
With OTVReruns, intersectional web TV platform OTV - Open Television explores its rich back catalogue of programs from Cycles 1-4 enhanced by the point of view of the creators. OTVReruns is a director’s cut with a playful twist. In the form of VH1’s Pop-Up Video, the shorts are overlaid with behind the scenes info and trivia on display in annotated bubbles.
This first edition of OTVReruns highlights Border’d, United States of Aliens, and FOBia. This livestream is powered by 6018North and Chicago Cultural Center. View the trailer on YouTube, with more info at weareo.tv.
We are the Cure: Drawings and New Visions on COVID-19 with Sabba Elahi – May 1 and May 9, 2020
Sabba Elahi invites the public to “redraw a COVID-19 cure," creating a collective work of healing.
Before meeting, a small tile/fragment (4” x 6”) of a blown-up corona virus cell was shared with each participant. Participants are asked to respond to their visual fragment to “redraw a cure,” and submit 5-7 words about healing. During the circle, participants hand drawing or stitch which create two new textiles: the new collective image and the wordscloud. View on YouTube.
Compass to Now|Here workshop with Silvia Ines Gonzalez – May 10, 2020
Compass to Now|Here is a multilayered artists’ book project archiving Chicago's history of settlement, resettlement, unsettlement, justice, and labor movements, in larger connection to national immigration policy.
The workshop for Compass to Now|Here with Silvia Ines Gonzalez invites participants to critically engage our city's historical and narrative framework by joining artists in a virtual investigation of the installation. The public is invited to share their own stories around settlement, resettlement, and unsettlement as it pertains to individual experiences around living, organizing, and the geographical shifting that continues to shape the way our city is experienced. Join the artists for a reading of the work's context as well as an art making and participatory invitation to become part of the work's archive. View on YouTube.
Call for Participation: Imaginary Homelands with Kirsten Leenaars
Become a part of a new documentary project structured as a series of video portraits across the US, to trace stories of belonging and loneliness.
Participants - recorded via Zoom - are asked: “Can you describe your own face from memory?” This begins a conversation about community, belonging and family histories. These video portraits will be shared with each participant and posted online as part of the Imaginary Homelands project.
Visit 6018north.org/imaginary-homelands to sign up.
While the beaches are closed in Chicago, we invite you to watch The Magic Hedge by Frédéric Moffet, filmed at Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary.
Press
Visual Art Source “In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration,” April 2020 by Robin Dluzen
Chicago Gallery News “In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration,” February 10, 2020
South Bend Tribune “Legacy of immigrant labor seen in 'Living Architecture' at Lubeznik,” November 28, 2019 by Nora McGreevy
Herald-Argus “Exploring the architecture of immigration,” October 31, 2019 by Matt Fritz
IN/SITE “To Belong: Narratives on Citizenship and Migration,” May 18, 2019 by Susan Snodgrass
Newcity “Design Top 5: March 2019,” February 28, 2018 by Vasia Rigou
Sixty Inches from Center “Walkthrough: Living Architecture at 6018North,” January 24, 2019 by On the Real
Chicago Artist Writers “Living Architecture at 6018North,” November 18, 2018 by Sabrina Greig
Chicago Gallery News “Art Design Chicago's Busy October,” October 5, 2018
Chicago Tribune “Not the same old immigrant story as hard questions are asked at 6018North gallery,” September 20, 2018 by Lori Waxman
Sixty Inches from Center “September Art Picks,” September 2, 2018
WBEZ “Art & Design Chicago’s Living Architecture,” August 31, 2018 on Worldview with Shahzmeen Hussain
Chicago Tribune “10 visual art shows to look forward to this fall,” August 30, 2018 by Lori Waxman
Newcity “Immigrant Artists: Living Architecture Breathes New Life into the Histories of Chicago,” August 30, 2018 by Manisha Ar
Newcity “Design Top 5: September 2018,” August 28, 2018 by Vasia Rigou
Bad At Sports “TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (7/12-7/18),” July 12, 2018
6018North is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the promotion of culture and the arts in Chicago. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency. 6018North projects are partially supported by the Illinois Arts Council Youth Employment Grant, CityArts Grants from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, an Artistic Vitality Grant from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Field Foundation of Illinois, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, IL Humanities, the Joyce Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and individual donations.