A House Is a House Is a House (Homes for the Working Class), 2016. Media: graphite on paper
This series of 12 drawings was developed for the multi-disciplinary project (Re)Housing the American Dream – an ongoing community based, performative documentary project which started in 2015. This Milwaukee based project provides a collective forum for refugee and American born children to engage critically with their intersecting issues of immigration, segregation, housing, and happiness. In the early 20th century, Milwaukee became known for its “sewer socialism”: a pragmatic approach to reform based in cleaning up neighborhoods and factories with new sanitation systems, installing municipally owned water and power systems, improving education systems, and building public housing and community parks. In 1921, Milwaukee’s ‘Garden Homes’ became the first municipally built public housing project in the United States, reflecting these ideals. Looking into this socialist history of Milwaukee, and the city’s current housing issues, I looked at the different architecture models that were developed to house the working class people in Milwaukee in the 20th century and reimagined what these architectural structures might look like.
Thru the Roof is a visual meditation on exit strategies: leaving, staying, and the affective places between and beyond. In examining tactics for departure, we may tangentially ask, what are ideas and objects that point us toward home? How does our future thinking prepare us to survive in the present? This group exhibition features works by national and international artists David Cordero, Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez, Kirsten Leenaars, Regina Mamou, and the Portland-based collaborative DeeDee. Curated by Dan Paz. Exhibition essay by Ximena Keogh Serrano
Opening reception:
Saturday, March 10th, 2018
5-8pm
Opening performance:
Kimilsungia by Bo Choi in collaboration with Regina Mamou
6:00pm/ 6:30pm/ 7:00pm/ 7:30pm. Address: 6007 12th Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98108
More on the show: https://www.thealicegallery.com/thru-the-roof.html
