The Long Dream
with The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Label Writing.
Continuing The Long Dream's exploration of equity, the Label Writing Project invites Chicago community members to author artwork labels in the gallery. Offering this powerful point of connection to people outside the museum provides insights into the role of art in our city and offers a unique opportunity for personal reflection to the visitor.
Authors include members of 826CHI, Marwen, MCA Chicago’s Teen Creative Agency, and civic practitioners from the Civic Leadership Academy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
Cheryl Pope, WHEN I GET OUT, voice of incarcerated youth in Washington DC, 2015
“This floor mat displays words shared with Cheryl Pope during an interview with a young person incarcerated at a Washington, DC, juvenile detention center. The mat’s dimensions, six by eight feet, mirror the exact size of the cells inhabited by incarcerated youth—some as young as six years old. This piece mimics rugs in everyday workspaces with its rigid, corporate materiality, contrasting with a vulnerable personal testimony. Its commonplace aesthetic exemplifies how people who are incarcerated are treated as statistics once institutionalized. Their voice fills the six-by-eight space, forcing us to acknowledge the voices of youth who are incarcerated.”
Ebony G. Patterson, ….lavender heals mistrusts ….the workings of the dandelion are not enough, 2020
“Ebony G. Patterson’s deceptively colorful garden features vibrant flowers and new life sprouting in direct opposition to life in decay. She created an atmosphere of curiosity, with a nearly hidden record of death mimicking a grave marker and a lifeless arm dangling from the center of the work, almost as if it’s being absorbed by the surrounding flowers. This work, constructed of hand-cut paper greenery, illustrates the transition from death into new life, memorializing victims of social injustice.”
Read more here.