Carving Chicago's Power

In unit 2 of P’Art of History, my class learned about all the major events that happened throughout the 1800s, such as The Great Chicago Fire and The World Fair of 1893. Both of these show how Chicago has demonstrated resilience. We also studied Art Deco by investing different buildings and sculptures in the city that show elements of Art Deco.We had to think of a time where Chicago has shown resilience in our lifetime. I chose the 2011 snowstorm in Chicago that caused many people to get stuck in their car. As with the previous Action Project. I created an image and a linoleum carving which we would use to create a cement tile

NVA, "Carving Chicago's Power" 7/14-15/14, Chicago: GCE

Carving Chicago’s Power

NVA

6” by 6”

7/14/14

Soft cut linoleum, carving tools, clay, cement, water, and box knife.

In what way has Chicago shown resilience in your life time?

For me it was in 2011, Chicago had one of its worst snowstorms, the snow got up to cars windshields. The cause of this was that warnings that were made weren’t strong enough that people didn't prepare. Also since global warming has become a huge thing now a days, a storm like that is going to be worse. Since the snow was so high many people could not go anywhere. Some people were on Lake Shore Drive, and they were stuck and had to stay days in there cars waiting for people to get them out and to safety. Also many people could not get their cars out of their driveways to go to work, so the city as basically shut down. Chicago showed resilience was by they got snowmobiles and firemen to help get people out of their cars, then they set new protocols so that this kind of thing would not happen again.

Another time Chicago has shown resilience was on Oct 8-9 in 1871, during the Great Chicago Fire. This fire destroyed all of the downtown area and basically everything around it. The story behind the fire was that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked down a lantern and that started the fire, but there were other factors. First of all, many people were stocking up winter and people had a lot of flammable things in there homes. Second, a man who called the firefighters, called all of them except the ones closest to the house.Third, The Chicago River which people hoped would top the fire actually helped fuel the fire because there was so much oil on the river from the trash in it. The fire was so bad that it ruined the whole city turning most of it into ash. But, Chicago demonstrated resilience by rebuilding the city in only two years, the fire didn't burn the lumber yards.Also other states helped give money to Chicago and that helped them fix the financial part they needed. One of the biggest effects was once the city was rebuilt segregation was made in Chicago. After the fire they made a law that said they couldn’t build a house with a wooden frame, it had to be metal.

I used different Kente symbols to represent my example of Chicago showing resilience. My symbols show, hope, learning from the past, courage, patience and tolerance, and humility and strength, Learning from the past is how they made a new system to prevent that from happening again. The courage and patience/tolerance was shown by the people that had to stay in their cars over night in that cold weather. Humility/strength was shown by the whole city and how other states saw them from not helping those people faster. Art deco was a special art during 1800s that was used to show industrialism, it consists of geometric shapes and symmetry.My art piece shows Art Deco, because it is simple, is symmetrical, and has geometrical shapes. I created my piece the same way I did my last, I took a piece of paper and drew a box the was 6” by 6”, then I drew my design. Then I shaded in everything I wanted to carve out. Then I took the paper and put it up against the linoleum and rubbed the pencil drawing onto it. Next I outlined what I was carving, then carved. I used a special carving utensil that cuts precisely. After that,I made a clay border that was 4 inches tall and 1 inch thick, I made this mainly because when I pour the cement on the mold it will hold in place. Next, I actually make the cement, which was done by testing different amounts of water and cement, I took the rocks out of my mix to get a smoother surface, then pour. Lastly, I waited for the cement to dry and then cut the walls off and pull my art piece off which is a cement mold

NVA, "Carving Chicago's Power" 2014, GCE