Push Pull

2021

Faheem Majeed

(In Collaboration with Carrie Hanson, Damon Green and Liviu Pasare)

Push Pull is a series of photography, video, and performance work that explores the challenges and beauty of Majeed’s work as an arts administrator working with culturally specific arts institutions. The performance, choreographed by Carrie Hanson and performed by Damon Green, captures Majeed’s experience as the former director and curator of the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC). The performance which activates Majeed’s graphite frottage of the SSCAC’s 1890's Georgian Revival building facade. The choreographed movement captures the labor and repetitious cadence of the cultural worker trying to respect tradition while also pushing his community towards the future.

Founded in Chicago, Illinois USA in 1941, the South Side Community Art Center was created in response to the great depression. Primarily serving the African American community, the SSCAC supplied teaching jobs, public commissions, and safe space for the numerous black artists including Charles White, Gordon Parks, Nat King Cole, Margaret Burroughs, Richard Barthé, Elizabeth Catlett, AfriCobra, Kerry James Marshall, and Theaster Gates.