Ideals on wheels
Even the most jaded CTA riders may be shocked when an art gallery rolls into the Adams/Wabash El stop on Saturday 30. “Art on Track” will fill an entire Orange Line train with work by emerging local artists. As the eight-car train circles the Loop from 6–10pm—skipping most of its usual route to Midway—its curators hope the project introduces a new audience to the Chicago art world.
Tristan Hummel, 21, a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, came up with the idea for “Art on Track” three years ago. After reading an interview with a director who rented an El train for a film, he learned that anyone can charter a train (except during rush hours) for a fee of $1,200 or more, depending on the size of the event. Hummel won’t say how much “Art on Track” cost. “It’s not as bad as you’d think, but I had to take out a sizable personal loan from the bank,” he admits.
The CTA readily gave Hummel permission to rent a train in order to fill it with art—once he agreed to show works that would be appropriate for all audiences. “Art on Track” faces other unusual constraints, since it can only display pieces that won’t pose a safety hazard on a moving train. Participating artists are making creative use of suction cups and Velcro, and Hummel explains that none of the art is very heavy: “A lot of it is prints.” Everything will be for sale, but collectors must pick up their purchases after the mobile show ends because a Chicago Transit Board ordinance prohibits the sale of merchandise on board.
Hummel coordinated “Art on Track” through Salvo, an arts and entertainment company he founded last fall, and his classmate Scott Footer collaborated on the early stages of the project. (Footer left this summer to pursue his own artwork.) During the last several months, Salvo has received curatorial assistance from Lethal Poetry, a local arts-management company that specializes in socially responsible projects. Cofounder Mojdeh Stoakley, 21, a recent SAIC alum, says she found many of the featured artists through her alma mater.
Six of the eight “Art on Track” train cars will highlight artists from the Colibri Studio Gallery in Pilsen; the Flat Iron Artists’ Association based in Wicker Park’s Flat Iron Arts Building; Quennect 4, a multiuse art space in Humboldt Park; the North Side’s Peter Jones Studio/Gallery; and the Silver Room, a Wicker Park jewelry boutique. The other two cars, one of which was curated by SAIC student Becky Pfluger and the other by Hummel, present young, local artists not affiliated with any galleries or organizations. Hummel notes, however, that Aldo Castillo submitted an installation from his gallery: Cuban-born artist Antuan’s Izquierda o Derecha. Don’t take out your frustrations on this set of red punching bags, suspended from the ceiling, which are printed with the faces of politicians such as President George W. Bush and Senators Barack Obama and John McCain: Volunteers will ride in each car to discuss the art on board and “ensure its safety.”
Stoakley acknowledges that “Art on Track” is a “stunt”; Salvo and Lethal Poetry were founded on the premise that advertising and marketing techniques can be turned to artists’ advantage. Despite her youth—and her colleagues’—Stoakley insists, “[We have] a lot of power to be entrepreneurs, to create a new path or community for artists if we want.”
Admission to “Art on Track” is $5; patrons’ CTA fares will be waived.
www.lethalpoetry.com
www.themojdehproject.com
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