It’s Juneteenth and at Facility, Bob Faust and Nick Cave’s art lab and studio space in Chicago, the installation of the first component of their latest community-based project, “Amends,” is underway. For it, the artists have invited friends and colleagues to hand-write personal testimonials on the gallery windows, to reflect honestly on aspects of themselves that have contributed to holding our society back from equality. “I was raised as a white supremacist,” begins a letter by Michael Workman, an artist. There are admissions of complicity and silent acquiescence, regrets for words used and not used, apologies for taking easy paths or for acting out of fear of saying the wrong thing. Most of all, there are acknowledgments of vast unearned, unquestioned privilege and commitments to do better.

Source: New York Times July 01, 2020 22:18 UTC