Comic > Freaks' Progress Gallery

That's Not A Neighborhood at Hairpin Art Center
That's Not A Neighborhood at Hairpin Art Center
acrylic and latex
11' x 12'
2014

MAX: This is becoming a neighborhood… where nobody knows each other.

REY: Then it's not a neighborhood… because nobody really lives here.

Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood is one of many communities experiencing rapid transformation. Many residents are actively participating in a larger conversation about what constitutes "development," who it really serves, and how. It's a difficult thing to realize one's own part in gentrification, and even more difficult to figure out how to work with others to steer development into a positive force for everyone.

I showed That's Not a Neighborhood, which features two characters from my webcomic Freaks' Progress, at the Chicago Loop Alliance’s ACTIVATE: Art in Alleys event in June 2014, and at AnySquared's Because Art residency at the Hairpin Art Center in October 2014.

Wherever it is shown, this piece spurs a lot of conversation about what defines a neighborhood.