NINTH EDITION DATES APRIL 4-17, 2022
https://www.expochicago.com/programs/override
OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project is a citywide collaborative public art initiative between EXPO CHICAGO and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) in collaboration with the Chicago Digital Network to exhibit artwork on all CDN billboards and, for the first time, City Information Panels “CIPs” in the Central Business District from April 4-17, 2022. Participants include both emerging and established artists from Chicago and around the world. Placing artwork within this public context and the broader presentation of billboard advertising, OVERRIDE takes its name from industry terminology referring to the continuation of an outdoor advertising program beyond a contracted period. Fully integrated into the language of advertising and local familiar signage, each of the works included within the OVERRIDE program present the opportunity for local and international artists to intercept and push the boundaries of how visual culture is disseminated in our increasingly image-based environment.
Building upon the City of Chicago and DCASE’s longstanding commitment to public art, OVERRIDE provides EXPO CHICAGO a key opportunity beyond Navy Pier to showcase works by leading international artists in neighborhoods throughout the city.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Barnaby Barford | David Gill Gallery, London
Sanford Biggers | moniquemeloche, Chicago
Brandon Breaux | Artist, Chicago
Jasmine Clarke | Artist, Chicago
Laura Kina | Artist, Chicago
Caroline Liu | Artist, Chicago
Kameelah Janan Rasheed | NOME, Berlin
Leonard Suryajaya | Artist, Chicago
Gerald Williams | Kavi Gupta, Chicago
Karl Wirsum | Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago
LAURA KINA
Issei, 2011
Courtesy of the artist
“Issei” is a double ancestral portrait. The central figure is a memorial portrait of my paternal great-great-grandmother Makato Maehira who died in WWII in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa. The title refers to the Japanese-language term for the first generation to immigrate. My great-grandma Makato Gibu was issei and immigrated through the “picture bride” system of arranged marriage from Okinawa, Japan in 1919 to work on a sugarcane plantation on the Big Island of Hawaii.
