Let’s switch it up!
About This Project:
Exhibition
“Let’s switch it up!” a public project by Ellen Rothenberg was commissioned by the Weinberg/Newton Gallery Chicago in collaboration with the ACLU of Illinois for ANTHEM, an exhibition on voting rights. The exhibition opened in fall 2020 coinciding with the United States presidential campaign and election, and during the quarantine for the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Let’s switch it up!” is in two parts, an online project research archive and a streetlevel installation encircling the architectural facade of the gallery building. The facade installation includes images from the primary elections in Georgia and Wisconsin, photographic reproductions of political ephemera of voting rights campaigns from the Smithsonian Museum collections, and images of the site of George Floyd’s memorial and protests following his murder in Minneapolis.
The online research archive is comprised of video and audio excerpts of speeches, talks, and poetry from activists: Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Terrance Floyd, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barack Obama, Delores Huerta, and Mrs. Guilford, who recounts her experience of paying a poll tax in order to vote.
“Let’s switch it up!” juxtaposes America’s history of voter suppression, systemic racism, and violence to movements for social justice and electoral activism past and present. The work is dedicated to Black Lives Matter; and on the 2020 centennial of the nineteenth amendment, to women activists whose contributions continue to be obscured and erased.
ONLINE RESEARCH ARCHIVE: let’s switch it up!
Acknowledgments:
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of T. Rasul Murray; Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from Dawn Simon Spears and Alvin Spears, Sr.; Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of M. Denise Dennis; Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Division of Political and Military History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation’s guardian of liberty. It works in the courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
The ACLU of Illinois believes that the ability to cast a ballot should be universal and not be limited by suppressive efforts targeting people because of their income, their location, their age, or their political beliefs.
Project Team: William Watson, research assistance; Sonia Yoon, project design.
Exhibition History
ANTHEM, September 11-December 19, 2020, Weinberg/Newton Gallery, Chicago. Organized by Weinberg/Newton Gallery, In collaboration with the ACLU of Illinois featuring work by Bethany Collins, Jaclyn Conley, Eve L. Ewing, Mike Gibisser, Naima Green, Ellen Rothenberg, Sanaz Sohrabi
Related Program
Art and social progress: creating a better world
Performances and discussion between Weinberg/Newton Gallery’s Anthem exhibition artists, other artists from the Chicagoland area, and the ACLU of Illinois on the intersection of Art and Social Activism – especially during an election year.
October 14, 2020
RECORDED PANEL EXCERPT ↑
ONLINE RESEARCH ARCHIVE
Video and audio excerpts of speeches, talks, poetry from activists: Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Terrance Floyd, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barack Obama, Delores Huerta, and Mrs. Guilford
