Chemical (Re)Actions

On April 19, Chemical (Re)Actions launched the third and final platform, The Fish Hotel, and for presentations on work within the Chicago River watershed and on the work of how we understand possibilities within ecological narrative. 

From the Friends of the Chicago River Annette Anderson, Volunteer and Events Coordinator and Chelsey Grassfield, Policy Specialist, shared the genesis of their organization, the legacy of Bubbly Creek as it relates to the rest of the Chicago River and the innovation of fish hotels. Space sculptor, educator, artist and writer D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem sahred her ongoing work and research as it relates to ideas of creating different forms of ecological narrative and mediation.

We are excited to announce the selected works for the final open call for Chemical (Re)Actions: The Fish Hotel.

We Owe Each Other Everything (2020) by Aarti Sunder 
Ke (You have many teachers) (2019) by Kayla Anderson
Meandering (2020) by Patrick O'Shea

The selected artists came together for a discussion moderated by David Ayala-Alfonso. The recording will be available on Youtube soon.

Instagram Live talk with Alberto Ortega and Guillermo García Pérez, Editor, Writer and Art Journalist.

Even if you’ve never been to Bubbly Creek, the name seizes the imagination. Fascinating in its history, made infamous by Upton Sinclair in The Jungle, the Bubbly Creek of the 19th century bears little resemblance to the Bubbly Creek of the 21st. Still, the legends and the bubbles persist, though in reality Bubbly Creek today has more active contamination due to ongoing Combined Sewer Overflows and soil runoff than the lingering sediment, compounds and effects of the Union Stockyard waste.

We are excited to announce the selected works of the second Chemical (Re)Actions open call The Vigil. The artists discussed their works, moderated by Nancy Valladares, on April 12 2021.

The Guardians of the Cerrado by Fábio Erdos (2017)
Aguas Negras (Black Waters) by Mateo Vargas (2021)
The River Escapes by Eduardo Makoszay Mayén (2019)

For the launch of the second platform of Chemical (Re)Actions, the Goethe-Institut Chicago hosted Dorian Breuer and Holly Jean Buck on Feb 15 for a conversation on industrial accountability, carbon removal and public participation. Dorian Breuer is a co-founder of the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (P.E.R.R.O.) which has led successful campaigns against industrial polluters since 2004. Holly Jean Buck is Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Buffalo, NY and author of After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration.

Ein Gespräch zwischen Chemcial (Re)Actions Kuratorin Joshi Radin und Tahila Xicahuamaztl Mintz, Ahnenschreiberin, Künstlerin und Aktivistin.

Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) Toxic Tour with Dr. Bethany Barratt and Special PERRO Guest Maria Chavez.
During 2011 protests against the Midwest Generation Fisk coal-burning power plant in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, PERRO members held candlelit vigils or vigils camped out on sidewalks. These community members memorialized the estimated annual forty-two deaths and hundreds of respiratory illnesses directly attributed to the power plant’s emissions. Eventually, the community coalition actions prevailed and the plant closed its coal-burning operations in 2012.

A virtual platform to engage with the legacy of Hazel Johnson, the community of Altgeld Gardens and the work of People for Community Recovery.
 

The director of People for Community Recovery spoke on 12/14/2020 on the community organizing and advocacy work of the organization started by her mother, Hazel Johnson, from its beginnings up until the present. After the death of her mother, who has become known as “the mother of the environmental justice movement,” Cheryl Johnson and PCR have continued to address environmental racism and climate justice as it affects the South Side of Chicago.

On Jan 19, we discussed Environmental Activism and the Arts in South America with Argentine curator and arts researcher Leandro Martinez Depietri and Chemical (Re)actions curator and artist Alberto Ortega Trejo on Instagram Live.
 

We are excited to announce the winners of the The Tactical Gardens open call:

The Reversal (2020) by Jennifer Boles, Chicago, IL
The Density of Breath (2020) 13 minutes, by Nancy Valladares, US/Honduras
The Case of Meat (2020) by Valeria Meiller & Agustín Schang, Argentina / USA

Curator David Ayala-Alfonso moderated a discussion of these works with their creators on Monday, March 08 at 6PM.

People for Community Recovery (PCR) is a non-profit environmental organization found by the late Hazel M. Johnson (Mother of the Environmental Justice Movement).

PERRO stands for Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization. It is a grassroots community group of Pilsen residents that formed in 2004 to fight the disproportionate amount of pollution in the Pilsen neighborhood.

Friends of the Chicago River is an award-winning nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve and protect the Chicago River for people, plants and animals. Friends works to make the river healthier and more accessible, while building awareness of the benefits that a clean, healthy river can bring to the surrounding community.