HOMELESS: telling our own stories
Curated by Jesse Eubanks and Michael Winters
Sponsored by Jefferson Street Baptist Center
On view February 1- March 2, 2008
Opening reception Saturday February 2, 2008. 7-11p.m.
When you’re homeless, February is the most dangerous month of the year. Each year, several people on Louisville’s streets freeze to death or catch severe illness. Others simply live in the physical ache of the perpetual cold, waiting until morning comes to find a place of warmth. That is why February was chosen to debut HOMELESS: TELLING OUR OWN STORIES.
Debuting at The 930 Art Center on February 1st, HOMELESS is an art exhibit that uses photographs, drawings, audio and video footage as mediums for people who are homeless to document their own lives and tell their stories through art. The goal is to allow people who have never experienced homelessness to step inside the struggles of living on the streets. The intention is to encourage people who are not homeless to build relationships with people who are.
One project in the exhibit is a series of self-documenting photographs. Using disposable cameras, homeless people took time documenting their lives – taking pictures of friends, personal treasures, the city and their daily routines.
Another project is by local artist Mark Anthony Mulligan. Mulligan’s work has been featured in a variety of exhibits around the country and is in the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Folk Art Museum in Morehead, KY. One of the unique things about Mulligan is that he has been homeless on and off again for the last 20 years and has been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. In 2001, Mulligan spent six months using a Kinko’s on Bardstown Rd. as his regular art-creating space. Sixteen hours a day, Mulligan would draw his brightly colored city landscapes that featured his affection for oil signs and his narratives of how he viewed the world and himself. After completing each piece, Mulligan would simply get up and leave the store. Cameron Deeb, a Kinko’s employee, attentively collected the left behind artwork and as a result has one of the largest collections of Mulligan’s work today.
Additional pieces include film interviews with homeless people as well as an installation piece that puts attendees under the mental weight of homelessness. Participants step inside a booth alone where voices are projected from several speakers. Some voices rattle off the desperation of their situation; others are the disgusted words of passers-by, the insecurities of hopelessness and the delusions of mental illness.
An estimated 32 million people in the United States live in poverty. Each year in Louisville, over 12,000 people find themselves without a place to call home. These are the homeless.
HOMELESS is designed to become a traveling exhibit to be shown on college campuses and galleries around the country beginning with Murray State University in April 2008.
ABOUT JEFF STREET BAPTIST CENTER
Every day, over 200 homeless people walk through the doors of Jefferson Street Baptist Center. JSBC is a mailing address for over 1200 homeless people. Hundreds of homeless people store their belongings in JSBC’s storage closet. At JSBC, people are able to make phone calls, take showers, do laundry and get something to eat. 11 men call JSBC their permanent home, living in long-term apartments, while another 20 live there while transitioning from homelessness to a more stable situation.
