The Beloved Community

 

Description

The Beloved Community is a small-scale neighborhood of homes built by a community of Evanston-based artists for Evanston Terrain Biennial. Over twenty local artists created a unique vision of home to be placed in the community. Each of the artists’ homes proudly display a Black Lives Matter yard sign as a sign of neighborhood unity. To the north of the neighborhood, there are nine full-sized Black Lives Matter yard signs, one for each of Evanston’s wards. They have been defaced to reflect the recent vandalism and theft of Black Lives Matter signs in Evanston neighborhoods.

 

Bio

Ben Blount is a designer and printer that uses books, posters and installations to explore notions of race and identity in America. Shaped by two decades of experience in design and advertising, his work draws on a common cultural language of objects, stories and experiences to draw attention to the differences between what we see, and how we are seen. With a range of contemporary influences from Dave Chappelle and Kara Walker to Mos Def and Amos Kennedy, Blount’s work is often provocative and topical. He has taught book arts and and shown his work throughout the US. A native Detroiter, he earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago and currently lives in Evanston, IL.http://benblount.com