Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot

Who are “The Brown People”? What does a “Wren” connote? Where is the “Parking Lot”? Why would someone ask these questions?

Initiated by artist and University of Chicago Department of Visual Arts faculty member William Pope.L, Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot is a DIY media campaign and exhibition facilitated by faculty, students, staff and community members of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts to reflect on issues of connectedness, home and immigration. The campaign took place in the halls of the Logan Center over the last six weeks and was composed of posters, whispers, video interviews and a library containing over 1,200 books on the subject of immigration.

On view from November 10, 2017 through January 7, 2018 in the Logan Center Gallery, the exhibition Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot gathers various ephemera from the campaign as well as serves as a space for open conversation, relaxation and reflection. 

This campaign and exhibition are happening at a significant moment in our country’s history. Nationally and globally, we are witnessing heightened debates over immigration, race, and the fight of the 99%. On a local level, race relations and class distinctions mark our daily experiences in Chicago as in many other American cities. Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot provides a platform for us to collectively address questions and create actions concerning difference and possibility in our society. Using the Logan Center as the locus of its activities, the Wrens campaign and exhibition highlights how immigration is a part of our lives in so many ways.

Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot is presented by Logan Center Exhibitions. Generous support provided by the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago.

Related programming

Town Hall Meeting & Opening Reception 
November 10, 6pm
Join curator Yesomi Umolu and Pope.L, as well as some of the interventionists, during the opening of Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot to participate in a town hall meeting where attendees will eat, drink, and converse about the project, and reflect on issues of immigration, home and not-knowing. 

Community Hours 
Tuesday–Sunday 11am–9pm
Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot is a communal space, free and open to the public. Stop by to browse through our library of books on immigration, have a coffee at our coffee bar, relax in the lounge, and post a story, poem, drawing or comment on our walls; or if you need to rest, want a place to do homework, or hold a meeting, you are more than welcome.

Sitting Ovation Sessions
November 14, 2pm
December 14, 2pm
Chicago-based artist Brit Barton leads a two-part choreographic workshop that uses movement to explore questions of collective migration, instability, and improvisation. The workshops include studies of focused breathing, stillness, and repetitive gesture. No prior movement experience is necessary and any attire can be worn. 

An Evening of Music
December 1, 6pm
Join Dieter Roelstraete in the gallery for an evening of music and conversation on the issues related to immigration.

Micro-Performances
December 4, 12pm
December 5, 12pm
Curator Dieter Roelstraete recites from memory a text written by Pope.L. 

Reading: The Migration Stories Project
December 7, 4pm
Join us for a public reading on the theme of changing as we move through space. Student and faculty readers will read from work featured in the newly-issued community anthology of The Migration Stories Project. Presented in partnership with the Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Chicago.

Artist Talk with Pope.L and Dieter Roelstraete
January 4, 6pm
Join artist Pope.L and curator Dieter Roelstraete as they discuss Pope.L’s contribution to Documenta 14, Flint Water and the Wrens campaign.

All events are free and open to the public.

About Pope.L
Pope.L (1955, Newark, NJ) is a visual artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice uses binaries, contraries and preconceived notions embedded within contemporary culture to create art works in various formats, for example, writing, painting, performance, installation, video and sculpture. Building upon his long history of enacting arduous, provocative, absurdist performances and interventions in public spaces, Pope.L applies some of the same social, formal and performative strategies to his interests in language, system, gender, race and community. Pope.L received his BA from Montclair State College in 1978 and his MFA from Rutgers University in 1981. Major performances include Baile (2016); The Problem (2016); Pull (2013); The Black Factory national tour (2002–09); The Great White Way (2001–02); Community Crawls (2000–05); Eating the Wall Street Journal (2000); Black Domestic aka Roach Motel Black (1994); How Much is that Nigger in the Window (1990-1992); Times Square Crawl (1978); and Thunderbird Immolation (1978). Recent exhibitions, performances, and projects include documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel Germany (2017); the Whitney Biennial (2017); “PLAMA” (“The Spot”), a commercial commissioned for On the Tip of the Tongue at Museum of Modern Art Warsaw (2016); the 32nd Biennial de São Paulo (2016); The Freedom Principle at ICA Philadelphia (2016) and MCA Chicago (2015); and Trinket at The Geffen Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2015); Pope.L is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Joyce Foundation Award, the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship, Andy Warhol Foundation grant, Creative Capital Foundation grant, National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and Artists Space grant. He lives and works in Chicago, IL.

Logan Center Exhibitions​
Logan Center Exhibitions presents international contemporary art programming at the Logan Center Gallery and throughout the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Reflecting the spirit of inquiry at the university, Logan Center Exhibitions focuses on open, collaborative, and process-based approaches to cultural production.