Dear friends,

To get straight to it, this is an invitation to the inauguration of our ongoing project: 1,500,000,000,000

In this we are, rightly or not, assuming that you have student loans, and should you not, you most likely either paid them off already or were lucky enough to have found yourself in a situation in which you did not need them. However, the likelihood that you have not is so narrow that, to use an old phrase, you could find a needle in a haystack, before you could find one of us that is not grossly transformed by the current structure of capital with regards to education. Higher education is suffocating those that have been told that, taken the effort towards, been privileged to and went through the process to attain what they were told would occur should they perform and transform themselves within society. The current state of capital as relates to education and opportunity is a faulty equation.

In this project, we aim to expose, through relatable documents and simple math, the unbelievable weight of debt that we all, collectively, find ourselves situated within. We do not ask for you to do anything more than to come for the opening. But before that, please send a scanned pdf of your most recent loan agreement. You can redact whatever you would like so long as the total amount, interest rate and payment plan that you have agreed upon with the loan agency is legible.

This document will then be printed and displayed at Triumph, along with all other willing participants. We understand that our debts can feel like an embarrassment and we have no inclination to expose whatever may make you feel uncomfortable, rather we want to open a dialogue that appears to be missing. Our generation is drowning in unnecessary debt, and we are not being provided the means to pay those debts while living a comfortable existence. Many of us are also educators who are given low wages with no job security and while teaching what we love to the next generation, we know that they will be in a similar, if not worse, situation than we find ourselves in.

So what we ask of you, is to come on Saturday, and prior to that, to send us that pdf. There will also be a website with information that anyone that should choose to participate will be allowed to provide with their loan information, total cost, interest rate, monthly payment and projected end date. The website will be a working and living document, where anyone who wishes may input their data even after the show’s conclusion, with each participants information visible, that will continue well beyond the show.

Please send the document to triumph.gallery.chicago@gmail.com.
The inauguration of this ongoing project will be on April 14 in the gallery.

Thank you in advance for your consideration,

Ryan Coffey,
TRIUMPH CHICAGO

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Tags: 1500000000000, Chicago, Illinois, Lower West Side, Ryan Coffey, Triumph Chicago