Dawoud Bey: The Chicago Project

April 24–June 15, 2003

As part of an intensive twelve-week artist residency that began in November 2002, acclaimed Chicago-based photographer Dawoud Bey led twelve teenagers through a creative and critical investigation of the ways that identity is shaped, portrayed, and expressed in contemporary culture.

Bey had previously undertaken short-term projects that bring young people and museums together, but this was his most ambitious residency to date and the first conducted within his home community. For this exhibition, Bey created large color portraits of the twelve students from Kenwood High School, South Shore Small School of Entrepreneurship and Small School of the Arts, and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Each photograph was accompanied by an audio portrait by award-winning radio documentary producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister, and by a written statement and photograph that the teenagers have chosen to represent themselves.

As a whole, the exhibition design—developed in collaboration with Garofalo Architects, Chicago—presented a multifaceted and fluid composite of teenage identity.

Related exhibition

Teenage participants curated the related exhibition Group Portrait, featuring photographic portraits from the Smart Museum's collection as well as works on loan from a private collection.

Catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue that unpacks the process of Bey's residency, featuring twelve original photographic portraits and a CD of audio portraits.