Cheryl Pope
All images courtesy the Artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Photo by James Prinz Photography.
A SILENT I, 2010, Installation view of series of nylon banners installed in Lindblom Math and Science Career Academy, text on banners written by Chicago youth from the school.
A SILENT I, 2010, Text by Chicago Youth from Lindblom Math and Science Career Academy.
Sports in the United States is a religion. It is believed in, it is prayed to, and it contains all the complexities of both the individual and society. For these reasons, I use sports as a framework to seduce the viewer towards and into more complex conversations of violence, race, inequality, fear, and abuse of power. Often collaborating with youth through poetic language, I intervene into athletic contexts, shifting familiar or expected language with an individual voice that calls forward a personal, psychological experience. Viewers enter the work confidently, seduced by familiarity and slick aesthetics, only to find themselves in a game that reveals and confronts their position as a player.
Just Yell, 2013, Installation view at Monique Meloche Gallery.
REMEMBER to REMEMBER, 2013, Text written by Chicago 7th and 8th graders.
#YELL_YELL, 2013, Plastic, steel, aluminum, auto paint.
THEIRS, YOURS, MINE (left), 2012, Athletic socks, varsity patches, embroidery coins, rotating motor, megaphone, speaker. SAY WHAT YOU GOTTA SAY (left), 2012, Audio, In collaboration with residents at Bethany Retirement Home, Evanston, IL.
THE GAMES WE PLAY (right), 2010, Athletic socks, varsity patches, embroidery, coins, rotating motor, megaphone, speaker. SAY WHAT YOU GOTTA SAY (right), 2010, Audio, In collaboration with Chicago Youth from Farragut Career Academy.
THE GAMES WE PLAY (detail), 2010.
Hoop Dreams (left), 2010, Black velvet, gold basketball, stainless steel chain.
THIS or THAT (right), 2010, Gold chain necklaces hand sewn with gold metallic thread to black industrial felt, gold basketball rim.
Cheryl Pope is a visual artist focused on sculpture, installation, and performance. Her work questions and responds to issues of identity as it relates to the individual and the community. Through her practice, she seeks to unfold the folds and puncture the surface revealing questions and constraints. For the past three years, her research has been focused on inequality, race, and abuse of power, specifically in Chicago. This research includes ongoing collaborations with Chicago youth through the intersection of poetry and public, interactive installations. Pope is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery, Galleria Bianconi, Spinello Projects and in partners with Project&. Pope is employed as Assistant Professor in the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she continues her involvement with youth in the city seeking to offer situations that instigate new questions and new language towards a safer and more just future. www.cherylpope.net