For the Wanderer (2017, collaboration with Fred Schmalz)
Responding to the unique architecture of Chicago project space The Franklin, we designed an installation to consider mobility, temporary shelter, and communion. Referencing the holiday of Sukkot, an empty hotel ballroom, and our desire to rejoice even in unsettling times, we removed the corrugated fiberglass roof of The Franklin’s to leave the works simultaneously sheltered and exposed.
With the roof of The Franklin removed, the structure resembled a sukkah, or one of the booths built for the harvest festival commemorating the Jewish people's 40-year period wandering the desert. Large banners—of an empty hall prepared for a banquet and an abundant table—adorn the structure.
The exhibition transposed two kitchen tables as sites of conviviality and bounty—one hung inverted through rafters, the other semi-interred in the yard, inviting a feast.
The 2017 exhibition included a poetry reading in the round , where we were joined by Daniel Borzutzky, Joshua Edwards, Rachel Galvin, and Lynn Xu to explore the work's concepts through writing.