Fourth of July in Chicago was a treat. I spent the early part of my day exploring bits of the city, like its Chinatown and various shoppettes where I ate peculiar foods off of menus written in foreign tongues.
In the afternoon, my cousin Nicole took me on a grand tour of her Southside Chicago, where she creates art at her studio within Mana Contemporary- a very nice and hidden little jewel of the art world.
After climbing nearly six flights of glittered stairs, blemished as such by the wear and tear of Mana artists hauling their various supplies to their artistic quadrants, we soon made it to a vacant level of thick industrial beams and whitewashed walls that made up a large convention-type room. The space was lit by the blue sun in its blue hour and which overlooked the spires of Chicago’s famous cityscape.
I then followed Nicole through a long and shadowed hallway, painted with the names of artists who worked behind closed doors. At the end and just barely lit by blue hues shining through the building’s old and wavy glass windowpanes, was Nicole’s door, and dirty it was, by the working hands of many inspired days.
Inside, pieces of fleshy materials hung from the ceiling by a wired loop of sorts that gently swayed with the wind coming in from a cracked window. Her worktable was dusted with small shavings from a dried grapefruit rind that molted as she peeled its thick and veiny skin in large sloughs. The room smelled faintly of chemical, mostly due to a mixture of the mediums she works with as well as that used by her quiet studio-mate, a painter.
While showcasing her art - a collection of phallus molds, vagina-inspired sculptures, and hairy specimens made of latex and brightly colored paints - Nicole explained to me why she uses the materials she does, about the artists who inspire her work, and how the digital age has connected her with other artists obsessed by things that make us feel uncomfortable.
Afterward we hit Hyde Park for the July 4th extravaganza. It’s a bit of a neighborhood tradition to watch the fireworks from the banks of Lake Michigan - folks set up grandiose picnics with grillers, bonfires, blankets, chips ’n’ dip and beers. I enjoyed myself to some oatmeal stout by the can and watched a couple learn how to rollerblade. Friends of my cousin arrived and folks I met somewhere along my 5-day adventure joined as well. Although there isn’t much else to say about the night except that we enjoyed the fireworks and the glow of Downtown Chicago in the distance that shined with neon fires and smoke that reflected it, this day, of all days, was a total treat to be in this great city and with my cousin and other fine people.
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