FOTA (Festival of the Arts) 2010 APPLICATION
Title of Project: Free to Choose Name: Erik Wenzel Location: The Chicago Theological Seminary Duration: Installed for the length of FOTA, subject to CTS schedule
STATEMENT
I propose to make a banner that will be hung at one of a few potential locations I have identified on the grounds of The Chicago Theological Seminary. I am troubled—and fascinated—by the University of Chicago’s plans to locate the Milton Friedman Institute on the site of the Theological Seminary, an entity entirely separate from the University.
The gesture made by the University is quite violent, hostile and loaded with meaning. It is practically an illustration of Milton Friedman’s legacy: economic shock therapy praised as a unilateral success that promotes democracy when it is more along the lines of closed-door buying and selling between a select few with little regard for ethics, justice or impact on communities. It is also incredibly meaningful that an institution devoted to heavenly ideals is being displaced by the decidedly secular devotion to money. In addition to this is the fundamental difference between the teachings of Christ, to take care of the poor, and look after the sick, to the fundamentalist teachings of the Chicago School, the immediate and total dismantling and privatization of all public funds, programs and assets that support these “life’s losers.” Indeed, it seems that the goals of the CTS, “We are committed, in a world stratified by social and economic class, to liberation from want, homelessness, hunger, and disease as companions with the poor, challenging structures and decisions that cause poverty, while fostering the year of God’s favor for all,” are diametrically opposed to that of the economic theories Milton Friedman represents.
The site itself seems suited only to churchlike practice, with it’s Gothic Revival architecture, various chapels and cloisters embedded with such artifacts as a fragment of Plymouth Rock and a cornerstone from a 4th Century Christian Church. An example of the multiple possible reads of this exchange is in the new building itself (which the University is paying for as part of the deal) and where it is to be located. In one sense it can be seen as the University pushing the CTS off campus and into the no man’s land of “south of the Midway.” But in another sense, this may be an ideal location. The CTS will be in a place between the various communities and demographics that populate the Hyde Park area. Likewise, the design of the new building can seem like a paltry replacement for CTS’ eccentric and historic current home. But the new building also has the opportunity to be more inclusive of belief systems rather than the present architecture, which is steeped in medieval European Christianity.
The Chicago School’s ideology has often been referred to as a “counter-revolution” to the Keynesian Economics that created the New Deal and saved this country from the depths of the Great Depression. Conservatives have grown this into a full-blown rebellion against progressive ideals. The act of situating the Milton Freidman Institute by displacing a seminary already is a symbolic. My proposed artwork will draw attention to it and open the situation up for critique and discussion from the Chicago community.
Echoing the aesthetic of freedom fighters and rebels, such as those in South America, the banner will be a deep red, the kind ordered by businesses to promote store openings (or closings). Emblazoned in black sign painter’s enamel, handwritten as so many urgent words of protest are, will be the words “Capitalism and Freedom.” The title of Friedman’s seminal text here becomes the cry of revolutionaries along the lines of demands such as “No Taxation Without Representation” “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality” and any number of seemingly concrete phrases that at first appear clear, but whose meaning is largely assigned by the predisposition of the reader.
EMAILS DETAILING THE FATE OF THE PROJECT
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010
From: Hannah Bracken
To: Erik Wenzel
Dear Erik, I am happy to inform you that your proposal for the 2010 Festival of the Arts has been approved! We are excited by your ideas and are enthusiastic to commission your work for the Festival.
The Board has agreed to your full budget of $50 for "Free to Choose." […] I will be working with you as your curator […]
See you soon, Hannah
Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hi Erik, FOTA has been in touch with the Chicago Theological Seminary about your project for FOTA and the seminary would like to meet with you to discuss it. The feedback seems positive so far, but it's similar to last year where if you could explain the project in person - to the people it will be effecting most - then that makes the project all the more possible. […]
Hope all is well with you, Hannah
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Jenei Grigg, Director of Facilities & Events, Chicago Theological Seminary
Dear Jenei, It was so nice to meet you today, thanks again for taking the time out of your day to talk with Erik, Jen, and me! I definitely learned a lot about the Chicago Theological Seminary, your upcoming move, and the great things that you all do. I've attached to this email the project proposal that Erik sent to the FOTA board. […]
Thanks again, Hannah
Date: Thursday, April 1, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hey Erik, I just got this email and am unfortunately in the situation of having to pass along bad news! I'm really sorry that this did not work out but if you want to brainstorm other places please let me know and we can work something out. She seemed so positive that I'm really surprised. Hannah
Begin Forwarded Message: From: Jenei Grigg To: Hannah Bracken
Dear Hannah, Thank you for the time to come and talk with me about the FOTA project from Erik Wenzel. Although the project is very interesting, CTS has determined that it would be best if we did not have this project on our campus. Please keep in mind that our campus extends from the corner of 58th Street on University North to the “Frat” house and east on 58th street to Woodlawn Avenue. I am sure FOTA will be a grand success and the many other projects you mentioned will stir imagination and interest throughout the UofC campus.
I wish you the best and again thank you for the time to speak with me and present your ideas.
Jenei
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
[…] It seems to me that the CTS is worried about making a grand anti-milton statement when they do need to be on the university's good side to ensure their own neck. I don't want Jenei to feel like we're ganging up on her, but we do need some more answers. How about I email her first since she sent the email about the verdict to me and we'll see what more she's willing to say.
[…]
Sent: Saturday, April 3, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Jenei Grigg
Dear Jenei, Thank you for sending the decision regarding Erik Wenzel's project, Erik and I are quite disappointed. We were really looking forward to having an involvement between FOTA and CTS because we're neighbors and the project is so sight-specific. It won't survive anywhere else and our meeting was so positive. Can you give me any information about the decision that I can also give to Erik? It's just that since the project is so sight-specific we would be willing to make changes or put it in a place of your choosing, basically, to compromise.
Hope that you have a nice weekend and thanks again for your help with this!
Hannah
Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hi Erik, I really want to talk more about your FOTA project because I really want you to still do it! How does hanging it in between two trees on the quad right across from the CTS?
I need to hear back from you today!
Also the FOTA gods above me wanted me to remind you that you signed a contract to make something - I feel bad writing that to you but it's a compliment to your work that we would like to include it so much.
Let me know what you are thinking, Hannah
Date: Friday, April 9, 2010 From: Erik Wenzel To: Hannah Bracken
Hey, so this is what I am thinking:
I would prefer not to do a banner if it is unable to be installed on the CTS grounds. […]
The thought I have been kicking around is to write some kind of statement or brief essay outlining the project and including a narrative of how it was ultimately rejected by the CTS. I don’t know what sort of relationship FOTA has, but possible venues would be the Chicago Weekly, which is operated through a journalism class or program at the University or the school newspaper. It could perhaps be framed as an “Op Ed” if need be. Another option could be on the FOTA website. Also, it could be made into a broadsheet, brochure or hand out and distributed around campus. Perhaps even in the Seminary Co-Op.
[…]
Erik
Date: Monday, April 12, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
I'm talking to people about your new proposal. This is not super informative but confirms our suspicions:
Begin Forwarded Message: From: Jenei Grigg To: Hannah Bracken
I did enjoy our meeting. Our leadership feels that such a display of work would be contrary to the relationship with UofC and since we are in the process of building a building under UofC, leadership is not willing to move with anything that could potentially damage the relationship.
I wish I could be more help.
It was a pleasure to meet with you and I was in hopes something could be worked out.
I wish you the best in your endeavors, Jenei
Date: Wedneday, April 14, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hi Erik, Thanks for your previous email, we've been talking about your new project proposal and have decided that we cannot include it as a part of FOTA. It no longer sounds like art, or at least the art that we originally agreed to fund when you gave us your proposal for the banner. Putting the banner between trees would have been an option but that did not seem to work for you (and it'll be ok that you don't want to continue the project in that manner). I agree that we got caught up at an unfortunate time with a bunch of university politics. Another year it probably would have been put up, but another year the sign would have meant nothing. It's annoying. Our decision about the paper or article is really just about what FOTA stands for - the creation of art. Advocacy in this way, protests, that's just not what we do.
Sorry that it has to end this way, Hannah
FOTA (Festival of the Arts) 2010 APPLICATION
Title of Project: Free to Choose Name: Erik Wenzel Location: The Chicago Theological Seminary Duration: Installed for the length of FOTA, subject to CTS schedule
STATEMENT
I propose to make a banner that will be hung at one of a few potential locations I have identified on the grounds of The Chicago Theological Seminary. I am troubled—and fascinated—by the University of Chicago’s plans to locate the Milton Friedman Institute on the site of the Theological Seminary, an entity entirely separate from the University.
The gesture made by the University is quite violent, hostile and loaded with meaning. It is practically an illustration of Milton Friedman’s legacy: economic shock therapy praised as a unilateral success that promotes democracy when it is more along the lines of closed-door buying and selling between a select few with little regard for ethics, justice or impact on communities. It is also incredibly meaningful that an institution devoted to heavenly ideals is being displaced by the decidedly secular devotion to money. In addition to this is the fundamental difference between the teachings of Christ, to take care of the poor, and look after the sick, to the fundamentalist teachings of the Chicago School, the immediate and total dismantling and privatization of all public funds, programs and assets that support these “life’s losers.” Indeed, it seems that the goals of the CTS, “We are committed, in a world stratified by social and economic class, to liberation from want, homelessness, hunger, and disease as companions with the poor, challenging structures and decisions that cause poverty, while fostering the year of God’s favor for all,” are diametrically opposed to that of the economic theories Milton Friedman represents.
The site itself seems suited only to churchlike practice, with it’s Gothic Revival architecture, various chapels and cloisters embedded with such artifacts as a fragment of Plymouth Rock and a cornerstone from a 4th Century Christian Church. An example of the multiple possible reads of this exchange is in the new building itself (which the University is paying for as part of the deal) and where it is to be located. In one sense it can be seen as the University pushing the CTS off campus and into the no man’s land of “south of the Midway.” But in another sense, this may be an ideal location. The CTS will be in a place between the various communities and demographics that populate the Hyde Park area. Likewise, the design of the new building can seem like a paltry replacement for CTS’ eccentric and historic current home. But the new building also has the opportunity to be more inclusive of belief systems rather than the present architecture, which is steeped in medieval European Christianity.
The Chicago School’s ideology has often been referred to as a “counter-revolution” to the Keynesian Economics that created the New Deal and saved this country from the depths of the Great Depression. Conservatives have grown this into a full-blown rebellion against progressive ideals. The act of situating the Milton Freidman Institute by displacing a seminary already is a symbolic. My proposed artwork will draw attention to it and open the situation up for critique and discussion from the Chicago community.
Echoing the aesthetic of freedom fighters and rebels, such as those in South America, the banner will be a deep red, the kind ordered by businesses to promote store openings (or closings). Emblazoned in black sign painter’s enamel, handwritten as so many urgent words of protest are, will be the words “Capitalism and Freedom.” The title of Friedman’s seminal text here becomes the cry of revolutionaries along the lines of demands such as “No Taxation Without Representation” “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality” and any number of seemingly concrete phrases that at first appear clear, but whose meaning is largely assigned by the predisposition of the reader.
EMAILS DETAILING THE FATE OF THE PROJECT
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010
From: Hannah Bracken
To: Erik Wenzel
Dear Erik, I am happy to inform you that your proposal for the 2010 Festival of the Arts has been approved! We are excited by your ideas and are enthusiastic to commission your work for the Festival.
The Board has agreed to your full budget of $50 for "Free to Choose." […] I will be working with you as your curator […]
See you soon, Hannah
Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hi Erik, FOTA has been in touch with the Chicago Theological Seminary about your project for FOTA and the seminary would like to meet with you to discuss it. The feedback seems positive so far, but it's similar to last year where if you could explain the project in person - to the people it will be effecting most - then that makes the project all the more possible. […]
Hope all is well with you, Hannah
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Jenei Grigg, Director of Facilities & Events, Chicago Theological Seminary
Dear Jenei, It was so nice to meet you today, thanks again for taking the time out of your day to talk with Erik, Jen, and me! I definitely learned a lot about the Chicago Theological Seminary, your upcoming move, and the great things that you all do. I've attached to this email the project proposal that Erik sent to the FOTA board. […]
Thanks again, Hannah
Date: Thursday, April 1, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hey Erik, I just got this email and am unfortunately in the situation of having to pass along bad news! I'm really sorry that this did not work out but if you want to brainstorm other places please let me know and we can work something out. She seemed so positive that I'm really surprised. Hannah
Begin Forwarded Message: From: Jenei Grigg To: Hannah Bracken
Dear Hannah, Thank you for the time to come and talk with me about the FOTA project from Erik Wenzel. Although the project is very interesting, CTS has determined that it would be best if we did not have this project on our campus. Please keep in mind that our campus extends from the corner of 58th Street on University North to the “Frat” house and east on 58th street to Woodlawn Avenue. I am sure FOTA will be a grand success and the many other projects you mentioned will stir imagination and interest throughout the UofC campus.
I wish you the best and again thank you for the time to speak with me and present your ideas.
Jenei
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
[…] It seems to me that the CTS is worried about making a grand anti-milton statement when they do need to be on the university's good side to ensure their own neck. I don't want Jenei to feel like we're ganging up on her, but we do need some more answers. How about I email her first since she sent the email about the verdict to me and we'll see what more she's willing to say.
[…]
Sent: Saturday, April 3, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Jenei Grigg
Dear Jenei, Thank you for sending the decision regarding Erik Wenzel's project, Erik and I are quite disappointed. We were really looking forward to having an involvement between FOTA and CTS because we're neighbors and the project is so sight-specific. It won't survive anywhere else and our meeting was so positive. Can you give me any information about the decision that I can also give to Erik? It's just that since the project is so sight-specific we would be willing to make changes or put it in a place of your choosing, basically, to compromise.
Hope that you have a nice weekend and thanks again for your help with this!
Hannah
Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hi Erik, I really want to talk more about your FOTA project because I really want you to still do it! How does hanging it in between two trees on the quad right across from the CTS?
I need to hear back from you today!
Also the FOTA gods above me wanted me to remind you that you signed a contract to make something - I feel bad writing that to you but it's a compliment to your work that we would like to include it so much.
Let me know what you are thinking, Hannah
Date: Friday, April 9, 2010 From: Erik Wenzel To: Hannah Bracken
Hey, so this is what I am thinking:
I would prefer not to do a banner if it is unable to be installed on the CTS grounds. […]
The thought I have been kicking around is to write some kind of statement or brief essay outlining the project and including a narrative of how it was ultimately rejected by the CTS. I don’t know what sort of relationship FOTA has, but possible venues would be the Chicago Weekly, which is operated through a journalism class or program at the University or the school newspaper. It could perhaps be framed as an “Op Ed” if need be. Another option could be on the FOTA website. Also, it could be made into a broadsheet, brochure or hand out and distributed around campus. Perhaps even in the Seminary Co-Op.
[…]
Erik
Date: Monday, April 12, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
I'm talking to people about your new proposal. This is not super informative but confirms our suspicions:
Begin Forwarded Message: From: Jenei Grigg To: Hannah Bracken
I did enjoy our meeting. Our leadership feels that such a display of work would be contrary to the relationship with UofC and since we are in the process of building a building under UofC, leadership is not willing to move with anything that could potentially damage the relationship.
I wish I could be more help.
It was a pleasure to meet with you and I was in hopes something could be worked out.
I wish you the best in your endeavors, Jenei
Date: Wedneday, April 14, 2010 From: Hannah Bracken To: Erik Wenzel
Hi Erik, Thanks for your previous email, we've been talking about your new project proposal and have decided that we cannot include it as a part of FOTA. It no longer sounds like art, or at least the art that we originally agreed to fund when you gave us your proposal for the banner. Putting the banner between trees would have been an option but that did not seem to work for you (and it'll be ok that you don't want to continue the project in that manner). I agree that we got caught up at an unfortunate time with a bunch of university politics. Another year it probably would have been put up, but another year the sign would have meant nothing. It's annoying. Our decision about the paper or article is really just about what FOTA stands for - the creation of art. Advocacy in this way, protests, that's just not what we do.
Sorry that it has to end this way, Hannah