Attention must be paid

     

     I love being a member of The Art Institute. That means whenever I am in the vicinity and have a couple hours to kill — such as a week ago Friday, when I had time between the end of a long lunch at The Dearborn and the beginning of a good-bye party at the Billy Goat — I can slide over and see what's new.
     In this case , what was new, for me anyway, was the large "Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica" show that opened in mid-December, exploring the complicated political, social and artistic movement fostering unity among Black people around the globe. There were many arresting artworks, but I particularly admired Ebony G. Patterson's compelling 2014 "Invisible Presence: Bling Memories."
     These richly decorated coffins, wrapped in colorful fabric and dripping with braid and tassels, were carried in a carnival procession, "a mock funeral–cum–political protest" in uptown Kingston, Jamaica, where Patterson was born and lives when she isn't residing in Chicago. She's worked with coffins before — while in Trinidad in 2011, she did a work that paraded coffins down the street to mark the murders that occurred while she was in residence. 

     The idea is that the deceased, on their way to the cemetery, put on one last show. The 2024 MacArthur fellow called these coffins "powerful declarations of individuality" where the deceased says, "you may not have noticed me when I was alive, but you will damn well see me when I leave."