March 3 - 29, Bromfield Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave. Boston
Opening Reception March 6, 6:00 - 8:30
*Intervisible (from urban planning) is the state of being mutually visible from specific positions in the landscape.
Intervisible - An installation about structural racism and the culture that discourages us from seeing it.
Can we create more intervisibility in our neighborhoods, homes and schools?
Where we work and where we play?
Materials and Motifs:
The artwork consists of two 8 foot tall fabric reproductions of the *red line map of Boston and environs from 1934. Each of the two walls shows a different part of the map. The maps are a physical artifact, and indeed proof of the history of structural racism in America’s financial and real estate markets throughout the 20th century. They are made from hand dyed cotton batting, a fabric that is usually used inside of quilts, and red cotton thread.
Inside the room, laser-cut paper walls divide the space and allow partial views of the map through decorative obstructions. The laser-cut paper includes motifs of Battenberg Lace, chain link fence, cotton plants, college pennants, and houses.
Background:
Redlining is a process by which banks and other institutions refuse to offer mortgages or offer worse rates to customers in certain neighborhoods based on their racial and ethnic composition. In the 1930’s, HOLC (Home Owners’ Loan Corporation) was established as part of the New Deal.
HOLC map of Boston, MA
The maps made by HOLC were color-coded with the “least desirable” areas designated in red. In the 20th century, these maps were used (alongside restrictive covenants) throughout the US, to keep immigrants, and African American migrants within the United States from purchasing property in white dominant communities. Throughout the great migration and in the decades after, these practices were legal, until the Fair Housing Act was passed. Long after the act was passed, protections were unenforced. For more information about red lining, the website Mapping Inequality is an excellent resource. A recent article about the continued impacts of red lining can be found here.
Bromfield Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 12pm to 5pm.