FRONT Porch
1470 E 105th Street, Cleveland OH 44106

Join artist Michael Rakowitz (Chicago, IL) in Cleveland on September 25th & 26th as he and core collaborators begin to erase the color orange from the city.

In the 2014 fatal shooting of Tamir Rice by Cleveland police, the 12-year-old boy was holding a toy gun with its orange safety cap removed. A Color Removed is a participatory project that responds to this tragedy with the accumulation of orange items in order to prompt viewers to consider how it feels to live in a society where the right to safety has been visually displaced. Clothing, toys, sports equipment, and household items will be cataloged and displayed at SPACES from July to September 2018 and will serve as a forum for fearless listening during FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art.

The first step to removing the color orange from Cleveland and suspending its future use formally begins with a public letter writing campaign this month. Participants will grapple with questions of racial equity and safety, affecting policy through the public expression of grief, creating solidarity for a more peaceful city, and collectively redressing extrajudicial force against people of color.

The letter writing workshops are FREE and open to the public, but you must RSVP, as space is limited. Please send an email to cvassallo@SPACESgallery.org with “A Color Removed RSVP” in the subject line to reserve your seat. Note which day you will attend in the body of the email.

Please note that future workshops will take place at locations throughout Cleveland, in the lead up to the July 2018 exhibition at SPACES.

A Color Removed, by Michael Rakowitz, is organized by SPACES and The Beamer-Schneider Professorship in Ethics at Case Western Reserve University; the 9/25 – 9/26 letter writing workshops are fully sponsored by The Beamer-Schneider Professorship in Ethics at Case Western Reserve University. This program is presented as part of FRONT International, in lead up to its exhibitions An American City: 11 Cultural Exercises, July 14-September 30, 2018.