Jason Reblando (IL) ,
Seventeen Stories of Public Housing
Space Preference: Museums, Universities, Non-profit, Commercial Gallery, Artist-run or Corporate Space

Artist Statement
My photographs of public housing are an examination of how the Chicago Housing Authority’s “Plan For Transformation” affects both the urban landscape and public housing residents. My intentions are two-fold: to humanize the housing projects through portraiture of residents, and to provide a context of the public housing landscape. I am not only interested in portraying residents as a community, but I am also interested in documenting the physical space at stake in the uneven and unending development of Chicago. My work shares formal affinities with Dawoud Bey’s investigation of portraiture and Bob Thall’s examination of urban landscapes.

Since 2002 I have been making photographs at Stateway Gardens, a complex of public housing high-rises with new mixed-income townhouses. This radical rethinking of the notion of public housing is being implemented throughout Chicago and throughout the country. The “Plan for Transformation” does not solve the problems of urban poverty – it has just made it less visible. Little regard has been given to the sense of connectedness to and within public housing. In a rash push for urban renewal, the city’s plans overwhelmingly favor real estate developers and gentrification over the effects on public housing communities as its remaining residents are uprooted. My interest lies in documenting the last vestiges of community at Stateway Gardens amidst the changing human geography of Chicago.

In many photographers’ treatment of public housing, the images emphasize a sense of confinement, of restriction, and of discipline that the space imposes on its residents, and in the larger public sphere, discussions of public housing usually involve crime-ridden stories and descriptions of burned-out buildings. I have chosen to photograph the landscape of public housing with multiple panels to create a sense not only of the expansiveness of these public housing projects but also the complexity of relationship between the residents and their housing.

The single-paneled photographs are archival inkjet prints printed at 24”x30”. The three-paneled images are 24” in height at 57” in width; the four-paneled image is 24” in height at 76” in width.

Captions

1. Jason Reblando, Stateway Gardens, Chicago, 2006, archival inkjet print, 24”x57”
2. Jason Reblando, Baseball, 2006, archival inkjet print, 24”x57”
3. Jason Reblando, Stefan and His Brush, 2006, archival inkjet print, 24”x57”
4. Jason Reblando, Red Garage, 2006, archival inkjet print, 30”x24”
5. Jason Reblando, Painted Bench, 2005, archival inkjet print, 24”x30”
6. Jason Reblando, April and Her Husband, 2006, archival inkjet print, 24”x76”
7. Jason Reblando, Mailboxes, 2006, archival inkjet print, 24”x30”
8. Jason Reblando, Wreath for Cornlius Wilson (1884 - 1919) The First Black Chicago Police
   Officer Killed In The Line of Duty, 2006, archival inkjet print, 30”x24”
9. Jason Reblando, Under the Building, 2006, archival inkjet print, 24”x30”
10. Jason Reblando, Isaiah and His Cameraphone, 2006, archival inkjet print, 30”x24”