of REQUIEMS and RELIQUARIES
by Amanda Williams
June 12-July 2
CAD East

“Let us bring to life in our imaginations this joyful spectacle. Let us stop a moment to read these lines and put clearly before our eye the [colored architecture] against the blue or gray background of the sky. We must get that image into our HEARTS. And then we shall be able to continue (to see) our reflections.” –LeCorbusier as remixed by Amanda Williams]

of REQUIEMS and RELIQUARIES

Chicago Art Department is pleased to present “of REQUIEMS and RELIQUARIES,” work by AMANDA WILLIAMS which explores new threads of inquiry related to her ongoing Color(ed) Theory project. For the past year, Amanda has been painting abandoned houses on the South Side with a highly specific, culturally coded color palette. For this exhibition she will create works that appropriate the idea of a requiem and a reliquary as metaphors for the houses she has objectified through her paint practice.

What are the rituals associated with the life cycle of these structures in these blighted landscapes? How can spaces that have been deemed to have no value and structures marked for demolition be deified or exalted in status? In what way are they relics? In what way is Amanda’s practice a celebration of the end as well as the beginning? How might the detritus of these neglected structures be elevated to a more valuable status by imagining them as relics and not rubbish?

New potentials for the Color(ed) Theory will be tested via a variety of familiar and unfamiliar media, including: drawing, painting, laser cutter, models, photography and letterpress. Returning to her architectural roots, she will contemplate what form the recording/documenting of an unwanted architecture should take. In addition to the exhibited work, Williams will engage in a series of one-on-one conversations with a myriad of voices that have unique vantage points on the subject.

of REQUIEMS and RELIQUARIES
June 12 – July 2, 2015
Opening Reception Friday June 12th, 6-10pm
CAD East Gallery – 1932 South Halsted #100

Amanda Williams is an artist and architect whose work explores themes of personal freedom, value and identity. She studied architecture and practiced it in the Bay Area for a number of years before turning her full attention to the visual arts. Color is a central preoccupation in her work; her evolving palette derived largely from the urban landscapes she traversed as a child in the South Side of Chicago. Her most recent work focuses on deep explorations of the link between race, color and space.