Wells
The planned installation of a permanent public sculpture in Chicago, a well drawing potable water in a publicly accessible location, forms the basis for this collaboration between Susan Gzesh (Director, Pozen Center for Human Rights, University of Chicago), Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (Professor Art, Theory, and Practice, Northwestern University) and Abigail Winograd (MacArthur Curator, Smart Museum of Art). The latest in Manglano-Ovalle’s Well series, the sculpture will become a site for gathering, for conversation, and for reflection on water.
Course Description: Water, Water Everywhere?
Fall 2021
This interdisciplinary course explores aesthetics, environmental racism, and the legal framework of the Commons as they pertain to the politics and aesthetics of water. Centering around a newly commissioned artwork artist, and MacArthur Genius Fellow Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, the course will look at issues of scarcity and abundance through the lens of art. In addition to works by Manglano-Ovalle, students will consider works by Allan Kaprow, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Fazal Sheikh, and others to consider how art can serve as a trojan horse in confronting the 21st centuries environmental challenges. Readings will Susan Sontag’s “Regarding the Pain of Others,” Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s The Undercommons. The course will include visits to exhibitions curated by Abigail Winograd as part of Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows at 40 including a site-specific installation by Manglano-Ovalle.