Why do so many social movements and abolitionists turn to art to imagine a new future? Artists are trained to develop work through both the exercise of imagination and the practice of craft. That is, in order to render an image of the new, one has to, over and over again, make the mark, stitch the seam or shape the material. In the process of trying and trying again to make something anew, the practice of abolition is possible. That is to say, through iteration and imagination we might get to a world where harm reduction is normalized, where policing and punishment is rarefied, and where throwing people away in cages for decades or lifetimes is not an option. But to get there, we have to make new systems of care and accountability, we have to practice being wrong and learn how to be with others in learning. Art making is both a process and practice that helps us lean into a space that we don’t yet have figured out and be challenged by that which is not yet known.
This conference will be in conjunction with the exhibition Stitch by Stitch to be on exhibit at the Weinberg Newton Gallery in Chicago, opening on July 16, 2022.
SAIC, Neiman Center
37 S. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL 60603