This installation, entitled Stargazer, combines a repurposed drywall jack with a historical reproduction replica of the window covering used in Majeed’s other installation Nkisi (also on view in this exhibition). Stargazer expands Majeed’s reflections on the continuous presence of holes on the Center’s main gallery walls by reimagining them through the lens of Black cosmologies.

During his tenure as executive director of the South Side Community Art Center, Majeed conceptualized the presence of holes on the Center’s walls as potential microcosms, pocket dimensions, and expansive galaxies that can serve as portals to understand the impact of Black artistic and creative expression. By inserting illuminated acrylic into the replicated holes, Majeed transforms these marks on the covering’s surface into constellations, connecting the past to expansive futures and living legacies. Rooted in Black cosmological thought, the work uses speculative storytelling of the Center’s past to link the act of remembrance with the potentialities of creation and reimagined futures. This work reflects on how we can see the marks on objects as constellations and cosmologies that can
be used to understand Black worldviews and to preserve the memory of a legacy while promoting its continued future. Majeed’s installation serves as a framework for how the act of preservation can open pathways to worlds yet to come, aiming to preserve memory in objects through the act of new creation.

Faheem Majeed (b. 1976) is an artist, curator, educator, and non-profit administrator whose work focuses on institutional critique and centers collaboration as a tool to engage communities in meaningful dialogue. He received his BFA from Howard University and an MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Art. He is the recipient of the Field and MacArthur Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago Award, the Joyce Foundation Award, and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, and has been recognized as a Harpo Foundation Awardee. Majeed served as the Executive Director of the South Side Community Art Center from 2005 to 2011 and currently serves as the Co-Director and Founder of the Floating Museum, an arts collective and non-profit that creates new models to explore relationships between art, community, architecture, and public
institutions. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centre Pompidou, Highline, and the Hyde Park Art Center. Majeed’s sculpture highlights marginalized objects, histories, people, and places into powerful narratives that challenge and recontextualize their value, fostering dialogue and broader social change.

Legacies and Roots
Opening in presence of the artist, Saturday, January 11, 2:00- 7:00 PM
Saturdays 2-7pm and by appointment through February 11, 2024