{"id":167511,"date":"2024-11-06T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/?p=167511"},"modified":"2024-10-18T08:42:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T13:42:56","slug":"john-early-a-more-perfect-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/2024\/11\/john-early-a-more-perfect-union\/","title":{"rendered":"John Early: A More Perfect Union"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present \u201cA More Perfect Union\u201d by St. Louis-based artist John Early. The exhibition will open on Monday, Oct. 21 and run through Thursday, Nov. 14.<\/p>\n<p>In conjunction with this exhibition, the artist will present an Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series lecture from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6 in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library. Early\u2019s lecture, \u201cCreative Practice for Social Change,\u201d will feature images from his art practice, which engages deeply with cultural and social landscapes to address issues of spatial injustice, urban renewal and community identity. His work highlights the complexities of social change, advocating for spatial equity, racial justice and the preservation of community memory through art.<\/p>\n<p>Immediately following this lecture, the UIS Visual Arts Gallery will host an exhibition reception for \u201cA More Perfect Union\u201d from 7-8:30 p.m. at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Coinciding with the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, \u201cA More Perfect Union\u201d is a sculptural installation made for a nation at a pivotal moment. Its focal point consists of a massive, fragile panel of compressed earth held up by a wooden frame and cinderblocks. Pierced with fifty holes, the dirt sign sits in front of a bay of windows, thus allowing natural light to shine through an otherwise impenetrable plane. The sculpture evokes old roadside billboards and DIY signage found throughout the Midwest countryside, yet it makes no pronouncements. Rather, it offers an invitation. To reflect, to connect, and, perhaps, even to hope amidst the precarity of the present moment.<\/p>\n<p>Early is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose site-based work explores the textures, layers and histories of place. Much of his recent work addresses power structures of inequity found in the recreational landscape of St. Louis\u2019s public parks. Since 2021, Early has collaborated with sports studies scholar Noah Cohan on \u201cWhereas Hoops,\u201d an interdisciplinary project combining public scholarship, archival research, spatial interventions and activism to address the absence of basketball courts in St. Louis\u2019s Forest Park. In April 2022, Early\u2019s essay about a basketball court in North St. Louis was included in the edited volume, \u201cThe Material World of Modern Segregation: St. Louis in the Long Era of Ferguson.\u201d He is currently a senior lecturer in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and is a faculty affiliate at the University\u2019s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Equity.<\/p>\n<p>The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is centrally located on the UIS campus in the Health and Sciences Building, room 201 (HSB 201). Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. For more information and future exhibitions, visit the UIS Visual Arts Gallery website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present \u201cA More Perfect Union\u201d by St. Louis-based artist John Early. The exhibition will open on Monday, Oct. 21 and run through Thursday, Nov. 14. In conjunction with this exhibition, the artist will present an Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series lecture from<a href=\"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/2024\/11\/john-early-a-more-perfect-union\/\" class=\"read-more\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":167512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,5],"tags":[264364,99867,264289,264363,94779,157083,224976,172237],"class_list":["post-167511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition","category-reception","tag-a-more-perfect-union","tag-il","tag-john-early","tag-john-early-a-more-perfect-union","tag-social-change","tag-springfield","tag-uis-visual-arts-gallery","tag-university-of-illinois-springfield-visual-arts-gallery","cat-39-id","cat-5-id"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/John-Early-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167653,"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167511\/revisions\/167653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevisualist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}