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T
onika Lewis Johnson has been thinking about
issues related to her
Folded Map
project for
more than twenty years. In high school Lewis
Johnson lived in Englewood, but attended Lane
Technical College Prep, a selective enrollment magnet
school located in Roscoe Village on the North Side.
Every day, Lewis Johnson commuted across the city
by train and bus and noticed that although the names
of the streets remained familiar, her surroundings
looked astoundingly different.
Folded Map
is a
multimedia exhibition that investigates what urban
segregation looks like and how it affects Chicago
residents. By thoughtfully combining photographs of
corresponding address pairs, portraits of residents,
video documenting interactions between North and
South side residents, and a mural-sized interactive
map created by architectural and urban designer Paola
Aguirre, this exhibition critically examines Chicago’s
history of segregation and how it continues to exist
today.
This project is striking in its ability to bring up
difficult questions and to open a dialogue about
issues of inequality, economic disparity, and visualize
segregation in action. While photographing North
and South address pairs and conducting interviews
with residents, Lewis Johnson was surprised by the
willingness of participants to open up and have frank
conversations about their struggles, privilege, and
lived experiences. When address pairs came together,
she notes, they worked through initial awkwardness
and discomfort through humor and understanding.
Evidence of systemic inequality and disparity in city
resource allocation became vividly apparent as they
responded to Johnson’s series of questions about
everyday life in their respective neighborhoods.
Lewis Johnson’s ultimate goal is to raise awareness
about the structure of our urban environment, to
examine the social, racial, and institutional conditions
that have determined how our urban environment
is composed, and to invite visitors to question their
own preconceived perspectives and assumptions. In
the process of organizing this exhibition, the
Folded
Map
project was featured in the
Chicago Tribune,
the
Chicago Sun-Times, US News and World Report,
and
WBEZ
. LUMA is honored to be the first venue to
showcase this timely exhibition and looks forward to
participating in this important conversation.
by
NATASHA RITSMA
FoldedMap