Art

“THE GREAT WALL OF CHICAGO”

By Ariel Henderson

Summer 2021 HUM 201 WW1 TR

Personally, I have been living in Chicago for the last twenty-one years. And in my

younger life, I've seen multiple murals, neighborhood sculptures, and community art that could

fill an entire book. If anything, I'd say that seeing and being surrounded by such amazing art has

influenced me in my own creativity. However, after moving with my grandparents there wasn't

much artistic qualities around in such an older and rural area. But that entirely changed in 2017-

2018 when I started to see the process of something I didn't expect in my area. It was the

beginning of a giant mural that was colorful, inspiring, cultural, and over a sight to behold.

I'll begin with the artist of my chosen art piece: Rahmaan Statik. Rahmaan Statik is a

local Chicago citizen from the Southside who was known for graffiti and vandalism but now for

artistic truth and culture. He has multiple works of art all over Chicago that ranges from realism

to abstract. You probably may have seen many of his murals and just haven't known it. His

artwork is so outreach that he would get commission pieces from different neighborhoods,

popular companies, and well known brands. However, my absolute favorite it "The Great Wall

Of Chicago".

There are pretty much three reasons why I chose this mural to write about. One, I now

pass this long mural almost everyday on and away from work/school. So almost twice a day I

can just appreciate something as simple yet complex as this mural. Two, the different styles

comprised in the mural inspired me develop more variety in my own art. Three, the mural

expresses culture, diversity, and black culture in a way that I wish I can do in the future. I want

to be able to express where I came from and who I am with what I'm able to make with my own

hands.

Now, I'll start to give a bit of background of both the artist and the mural. "The Great

Wall Of Chicago" was painted in 2018 by not only Statik, but a few other artists to assist in such

a large scale project. The mural itself is a twenty by nine-hundred foot located on a bridge for

metro trains to pass on. The mural's location is on 87th and Vincennes which is perfect for two

reasons that even I appreciate. One, it is located in a spot where dozens, if not hundreds, of

people pass by and can be appreciated by anyone. Two, the 'canvas' used fills something that was

missing in that neighborhood; the wall was blank, bare, and essentially falling apart. The mural

itself uses a combination of acrylic and spray paints to give its vibrant colors and natural

shading. The spectrum of coloring ranges the entire rainbow plus almost every skin tone of

colored individuals. Statik always makes sure nothing clashes but suit one another when

creating his paintings. Although Statik made the decision to create this mural as homage to the

neighborhood and it's residents, many companies and individuals sponsored the making of the

mural; such as DCASE and A. Brookings.

Objectively, when I first saw this mural, I thought it was just a bunch of different

African-American people that I didn't know. In the mural you can see a conglomeration of

people standing around each other in stoic positions. The people range from old to young, all of

the skin colors are different shades, they all have different clothing styles, and even their hair is

different.

Now, with my objective interpretation, I generally believe the artist wanted us to see

black culture as a whole instead of in pieces.

When you look closely at each section of the mural, you'll see that the elements change

depending on the style and artist. If we looks at some of the lines for the mural, some of them are

very crisp and flowing while others are faint and used to imply lines. For example, in the title

photo, the woman with the owl has clear lines that both outline her shape, and contour her face

and dressing. Then still following the owl woman, we can see that her clothing varies in light and

value to convey natural shadows and the imitation of wrinkles. Next, the artist uses a range of

greens, blues, and purples that would compliment the woman's skin tone without clashing or

making her washed out. Lastly with the owl woman, we are seeing the visual texture of feathers

on the woman's owl. The feathers are meant to seem layered and plumaged like an actual owl.

Next, we'll move onto the woman in the center with fruit. The use of regular shapes are

used to emulate various fruits such as watermelons, limes, and mangos. Then behind the fruit

woman, we see a distanced landscape of the city of Chicago with it's buildings. The landscape is

meant to have a atmospheric perspective as the fruit woman is closer to the front, and the

background becomes fuzzy.

For the mural as a whole, the balance of the piece was leaned heavily at the beginning

and end of the entire painting. Both sides have the largest weight while in-between was varied

yet smaller. The scaling of the entire mural is unexpectedly larger than most common murals, but

is still possibly not the largest out there. Then, overall, the mural is an example of variety for the

various artists used and the different subjects portrayed in the mural. For example, the cartoonist

style for the 'funky' side of our culture or the realistic style for the more historic part of our roots.

Following there are two main contexts that make up the mural: history and culture. The

context involves history because many portraits in the mural uses elders from the neighborhood.

Then, the older folk ranged from soldiers, nurses, entrepreneurs, and even musicians that helps

build our history. Without these people, others wouldn't have a grounding of their roots or where

they came from. For culture, the culture takes different subjects that we are proud of in our

culture. Our music, fashion, social justice, and even ancestors are depicted on this large mural to

express how far we've come and that we've still got ways to go.

And with all of these points put together, it makes sense how each detail and message fit

with one another. Our culture is loud, busy, holds no bounds, and that's exactly the artist wanted

to express in each drawing. That's the main reason why Statik wanted more than one artist to

work on the mural. It wouldn't make sense to create standing as a culture with different

perspectives if it was only made by one person. Overall, the mural tells us that our culture is

something we should stay rooted to, use the past to help guide of futures, and that we are our

own key to our success.

I'd say that the effectiveness of the mural, visually and emotionally, reaches farther than I

expected. Younger generations want to learn more about it since they're curious about such a

colorful piece. I've seen them stand around it, talk about it in art classes, and even talk about it on

social media; which is their own digital faux religion. Then middle generations want to take

inspiration from this piece, art wise and contextual wise. Some want to be able to express their

creativity in such a meaningful way that their peers could relate to. Then emotionally since

something like this was a part of their childhood growing up, so they'd of course attachments to

something they plan to further extend. Finally, elders would reminisce about this type of artwork

and tell younger generations so that this cycle can continue.

Basically, the mural was created by different artists with a shared culture. The art piece

was created to honor the neighborhood elders and help pave the road for black culture. The

mural is both objectively and subjectively inspiring while stunning; with it's different styles and

varying elements. All in all, this mural has far too much to say without any actual words to say.

Bibliography

Barnes, Rahmaan S. “Rahmaan Statik Barnes - Street Murals and Murals.” Rahmaan Statik

Barnes: Profile, Wescover, 20 July 2021, www.wescover.com/creator/rahmaan -statik-barnes.

Datcher, Mary L. “Rahmaan Statik: The Man and the Mural.” Bronzeville Life, 14 June 2019,

bronzevillelife.com/bronze-feature/rahmaan-statik-the-man-and-the-mural/.

Koziarz, Jay. “22 Chicago Murals to See Right Now.” Curbed Chicago, Curbed Chicago, 7

Feb. 2020, chicago.curbed.com/maps/chicago -best-murals-map-new-public-art.

Barnes, Rahmaan Statik. “The Great Wall of Chicago Project .” Facebook, 31 Aug. 2018,

12:49 pm, m.facebook.com/Fox32Chicago/posts/10157321707503797.