Pissed-off citizens make great public art
- Politics and art collide in the form of this beachside bench, painted as part of Rogers Park’s annual “Artists of the Wall” event, in which neighbors each paint a section of a very long concrete bench along a Lake Michigan beach on Chicago’s far north side. Could the artist have been making a statement on Mayor Daley’s parking meter privatization fiasco?
Luckily for me, I happen to live in the only Chicago neighborhood with unfettered (read: sans Lake Shore Drive) access the Lake Michigan waterfront. And on perfect summer days (which Chicago has had too few of late) it’s almost your duty as a Rogers Park citizen to kick off your flip flops, grab a popsicle from a push-cart vendor, and walk along our long, narrow beach. Scorching sand and all.
That’s exactly what I was doing — that, and pondering how to illustrate how Chicago politics seeps into everyday life for my next True/Slant column — when I walked by the remarkable painted bench above.
Bingo.
Good old homegrown citizen outrage, captured in vibrant colors and a well-placed reference to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” was staring back at me, unmistakably lampooning Mayor Daley’s much-criticized deal last December to lease Chicago’s parking meters to a private vendor for a quick cash infusion of more than a BILLION dollars for the city.
Soon after the deal was made (and people realized that the stupid new meters cost four times more than the old system and didn’t even work anyway) people got PISSED. Including this artist, apparently. And with good reason.
An epic three-part investigation by the Chicago Reader earlier this year (part 1, part 2, part 3) unearthed a litany of shocking allegations: That City Hall was refusing to release basic information about how the deal was reached, that the city may have sold them for a fraction of what they were really worth, that the deal was ramrodded through the city council giving aldermen (much less the citizens) any time to analyze it or give meaningful input, etc. etc. etc.
And now the whole messy ordeal is beautifully captured on a Rogers Park bench for the rest of the summer thanks to an enterprising artist who isn’t afraid to call out City Hall’s madness in the most creative, accessible of ways. The art is great, but the continuing parking meter headaches? Enough to make anyone scream.
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Wow…is this a one-shot deal or has the artist taken on other issues?
I’m still tracking down the artist, but look for an update in an upcoming post.