“Architectural Fragments From Chicago” is a permanent installation within the Women’s Board Grand Staircase in the original 1893 building at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition features fragments recovered from significant demolished or renovated Chicago buildings by both celebrated Chicago architects as well as lesser-known designers that shaped spaces critical to our architectural and cultural history.
The display strategy is intended to distinguish the building fragments from the building itself to elevate them from architectural element to art object through the repetition of nine rectangular gray panels, to which the objects are mounted. The object’s status is never fully resolved however, as they are allowed to irreverently misregister with the boundaries of the panels. The panels themselves are de-objectified through the use of materiality, using mirrored stainless steel edges to create the appearance of a dimensionless surface. A new frameless door disguises access to a secure room and a custom mechanical grille was designed so as not to interrupt the “joints” in the trompe l’oeil stone wall. Lightboxes were designed for stained glass windows, including one by Marion Mahoney Griffin, placed high on the wall in dialogue with a grand Tiffany stained glass on the wall opposite.
From the curators: Architectural fragments are part of a material history that speaks to past building practices, changing neighborhoods, and evolving ways of life. Recuperated from demolished or renovated buildings, these pieces of facades or interiors help preserve the memory of architecturally or culturally significant structures long after their physical presence has been erased.
Since its founding in 1837, Chicago's urban landscape has been marked by continuous change. As the fragments on view illustrate, the drivers of these transformations vary. They range from the economic to financial pressures of the Great Depression, for example, motivated many demolitions-to the political, including inequitable practices of redlining and "urban renewal" that have led to a disproportionate number of teardowns in Black and brown neighborhoods.
While this installation represents many works by Chicago's celebrated modern architects, other fragments come from buildings by lesser-known designers who were equally important in shaping spaces of activism, community, creativity, and labor in our dynamic metropolis.
Project Team:
Thomas Kelley, Spencer McNeil, Andrew Hunt
Curators:
Alison Fisher, Irene Sunwoo
Collection Managment:
Elizabeth Mescher, Thomas Huston
Conservation:
Rachel Sabino, Kristen Gillete
Fabrication:
Ravenswood, Andrew Talley
Photography:
Nathan Keay & Spencer McNeil
