The cases of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin (and too many others) remind us of the tremendous amount of work and urgency needed to produce a social justice system that is equitable for people of color. Although not a cure-all (as the Garner case taught us), RECORD the POLICE is first a call for the average citizen to enact the responsibility of counter surveillance and the making of evidence. Whenever possible, we must build evidence to engage toward municipal, governmental, and cultural reform. Second, the sticker is a city/state/national plea for the widespread implementation of police dash and body cameras. Last, the sticker contextualizes this plea/imperative as one that is deeply American at its core.

Simply put, recording the police is a patriotic act.

The bumper sticker has long been a signifier of political identity and allegiance: for candidates, for causes, for backyards and for the globe. As fellow street artists Pavement note, though, it’s [also] in how you inflect. For our first show of 2015, Jason Lazarus responds urgently to the spate of recent—and highly publicized—social injustices and uses our format as a platform for political broadcast. Like so much of his work, it is sly in its delivery, considering where and when the political, poetic and personal overlap and entwine. We’re grateful to serve as the vehicle for this conversation.

We’re elated to be partnering with Gallery 400, whose programming and mission we deeply admire (and in front of which our own gallery has spent a lot of time). Jason’s show came about just when we needed it, which makes its pairing with Visibility Machines, the new exhibition of works by Trevor Paglen and the too recently departed Harun Farocki, all the more timely and serendipitous.

Alongside the joy of the opening—the usual unusual snacks, music, conviviality—we’ll be discussing and sharing some materials Jason has prepared in concert with social justice attorneys. Trunk Show will donate a portion of every sale—both à la carte stickers and subscriptions—through the run of Jason’s show to the ACLU.

We had two excellent events for Mike Rae’s I’D RATHER BE BORED sticker: one oneiric snowstorm in Santa Fe—with a borrowed car or two, an impromptu performance by Andy Kirkpatrick, lots of friendly faces and the friendliest eviction you can imagine by a dutiful security guard. And then Chicago’s shortest opening of 2015, a few minute affixing just west of Western on Walton. For those media messengers hungry for the next big things, hear Jesse and Mike on The Big Show with Honey Harris here. Newcity graciously listed us in their Top 5 of Everything (specifically in the Art Spaces in Tiny Places section), though it should be noted that as much as Trunk Show belongs to anyone but itself, it is both Raven’s and Jesse’s. Last month’s article from the Chicago Reader is here.

ABOUT JASON LAZARUS
Jason Lazarus (born 1975) is a Chicago based artist, curator, writer, and educator. His recent solo exhibitions include Jason Lazarus: Chicago Works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Live Archive at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, and THTK (Toronto) at Gallery TPW in Toronto, CA. Additionally, he is a Co-Founder and Co-Editor of Chicago Artist Writers, an online art criticism platform that asks artists and art workers to write traditional and experimental criticism that serves non-profit, temporary, and alternative arts programming in Chicago. Throughout 2013 and 2014 he screened internationally a feature length film comprised entirely of animated GIFS called twohundredfiftysixcolors, a collaboration with Trunk Show’s debut artist, Eric Fleischauer. Jason earned his MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2003 and serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

ABOUT TRUNK SHOW
TRUNK SHOW is a mobile exhibition space usually located in Chicago. Following in the rich tradition of Chicago’s apartment, alternative and creative exhibition spaces, Trunk Show is committed to challenging exhibition forms through its unique program. We feature monthly solo shows for which artists are commissioned to design a limited edition bumper sticker. The sticker lives, rides along with, and helps propel the medium beat up 1999 forest green Ford Taurus owned by Raven Falquez Munsell and Jesse Malmed. In addition to the month-long exhibitions, the editioned bumper stickers are sold (from the trunk) for five dollars each and by annual subscription (we’re now taking subscribers for our second season of programming September 2014 to August 2015). Openings follow a nomadic, symbiotic logic and include a public affixing, radio jams, and road snacks. Newcity named it The Best New Gallery on a Car Bumper.

Upcoming artists include Philip von Zweck , Lilli Carré, Davielle Lakind, Jennifer Reeder and Edie Fake.

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Tags: Gallery 400, jason lazarus, trunk show, West Loop