With Each Incentive is an installation at The Art Institute of Chicago on view now through April 26th, 2020. It is located on the Bluhm Family Terrace near the cafe and I saw it on my last visit. I definitely found it visually interesting, especially in contrast to the Chicago skyline. The architecture in Chicago is amazing so I could see this artwork in contrast to the beauty of the skyline just based on the simplicity of the concrete blocks and rebar compared to the skyscrapers. Then I read the artist statement about the work…
I didn’t see all that meaning which is attributed to the work in the statement when I was there and after reading, then contemplating, the description on line after, I still don’t see it. The statement makes some impressive claims how these artists are “aggressively tackling some of the most pressing issues of the day” and that this installation “contemplates how Chicago might be transformed by the current wave of Indigenous American refugees from Mexico and Central and South America.” I’m sorry but I don’t see it, and if anything interpreting the statement and applying it to the installation for me it feels like a negative statement against lower construction standards in Mexico and countries in Central and South America.
But here is the good thing about art, everyone can have their own opinion about things. If someone else were to feel every claim of the statement while experiencing this installation great. Also just because I don’t see the installation living up to everything billed in the statement, I still thought the contrast with the skyline was interesting. Everyone brings something different with them when they go to the museum and all experiences can not, or should, be equal.
