How does the way we live serve to memorialize and codify history and social structures? Housing structures are monuments to socio-economic prowess, inequality, and expressions ranging from vanity to distain. Inspired by a new exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum on public housing in cities and suburbs (2021), Alisha Wormsley and her collaborator and friend, Ayanah Moor, explore the future of Black housing in the US and its connection to Black mothers.
(c) Alisha Wormsley, (c) Ayanah Moor
The work, which will be installed at Mies van der Rohe’s iconic McCormick House – a proto-type for one possible housing solution situated in Elmhurst – refers to community and grass-root organizations like Moms 4 Housing, while creating a ‘Future Memory’ that leads from Cabrini–Green (an infamous Chicago public housing project) to affordable, dignified housing for all.
An online dicussion Featuring Alisha B. Wormsley and Ayanah Moor, moderated by Mechtild Widrich. The three discussed the future of monuments, text as monuments, and black women's labor as Afro-Futurists.
Alisha B. Wormsley is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer based in Pittsburgh, PA. Her work focuses on collective memory and the synchronicity of time, specifically through the stories of women of color.
