Pullman artist Olivia Gude paints other people’s words on walls and banners hanging in public places. Using quotes from interviews with area residents, Gude says she wants to show a community what’s on its mind.
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Gude has continued her oral-history approach, combining public art and community discourse in Echoes of the Heart: A Banner Arts Project, a series of eight-foot banners about race relations in the southwest-side neighborhood of Marquette Park. Though drawn from a specific neighborhood with a history of racial tension, the words on the banner–actual quotations from residents–strike a universal nerve. Their spirit and power form a frank portrait of a neighborhood in flux talking to itself. As one of the more than a hundred entries asks, “How do we communicate what disturbs us, but do it in a way that keeps the door open?”
“The basic idea was to let people have the chance to reflect on their perceptions publicly, because substantive, difficult conversations about race aren’t often shared,” says Gude, taking a break in the basement boiler room of Steinmetz High School, where she’s directing students working on a Chicago Public Art Group mosaic. “To me, it’s as though you were eavesdropping on really interesting conversations about race relations. I think people will hear things in the project they might not have heard otherwise.”
Gude says she realizes that her art alone won’t bring social change or calm fears. Instead it provides a framework for discussion. The banners, like most of her work, address two questions: What is community? And how can we make it talk? While she points out that the discussions weren’t acrimonious, the banners aren’t without their tensions and contradictions. No attempts have been made to resolve differences; the dialogue is open-ended, ongoing.
