MAKER Grants, funded by Chicago Artists Coalition and OtherPeoplesPixels, are an annual, unrestricted award opportunity for Chicago-based visual artists. MAKER Grants recognize that Chicago is home to a unique and thriving ecology of engaged and socially-conscious makers, who often work outside of traditional forms or without commercial support. MAKER Grants, therefore, endeavor to honor these artists whose work actively engages with social issues—with an eye towards using the strategies, beauty, and meaning of art-making for positive change.

Congratulations to the 2020 recipients, Silvia González and Selva Aparicio. Both artists were asked to tell us a little about their practices and how they plan to use the award money.

Silvia González

Butterfly Suitcase Collage, 2020.

My work has multiple layers to it. I am an artist and educator in Chicago Public Schools, and I often find my practices directly or indirectly aligning whether it is through praxis or the process of reflecting on the projects I develop. My personal work tends to take the form of installation, and I use screen printing, sound, collage, and drawing to create work relating my experiences at the intersection of myth and memory. As a collaborator on multiple projects and with other artists, I have also learned the importance of collective imagination and care. I am currently a member of the Chicago Act Collective, and this has really grown my belief in the importance of forming interconnected collectives rooted in deep connection, tenderness, care, and a desire to positively impact community.

Compass To Now | Here, 2020. Interactive Installation.

My most recent work is with 6018 North at the Chicago Cultural Center for the group show called In Flux--Artists and Immigration. I invited artists Patricia Nguyen and Joseph Josue Mora in creating a series of artists book documenting the history of settlement, resettlement, unsettlement and national immigration policy in context with local organizing and grassroots efforts. I created an interactive installation piece that prompted visitors to become participants in archiving their own narratives and experiences with Chicago, community, and their own neighborhoods. 

Tierra | Madre | Mother | Ship, 2018. Collage, Sculpture, Installation, Flowers, Print.

The Maker Grant that I've received is testament of the support Chicago continues to give their artists. It is through the Maker Grant support that I am reminded my work is seen and upheld by a creative advocates and celebrated among like-hearted community members. I am grateful for the consistency of this support and can only imagine continuing to grow it forward the best way I can. The first thing I did when I was able to go public with the award was to buy raffle tickets to support undocumented families during this time via the organizing of community member Victor Arroyo by way of La Carnalita. I was also able to buy some needed resources to continue my remote learning curriculum planning as well as personal art projects. I am using a portion of the funds to continue supporting the POC Artist Space virtually. POC Artist Space is an online Facebook resource page where Chicago artists of color can network, connect, share resources, and digital space. It has also served as a critique and salon space where artists can get feedback on works in progress or propose salon sessions for professional, educational, and artistic development. It is a project I started in 2016 that has since grown to over 800 members. Last but not least, I am giving the remaining portion to my family—my mom and sister—to use as needed. 

Selva Aparicio

Entre Nosotros (Among Us), 2020. Concrete tiles cast from human dead Donors. Dimensions variable. Photo credit: Robert Chase Heishman

I scavenge for nature's discarded flora and fauna and create sculptural installations with them as an act of tribute. Among these materials are human cadavers, insect wings and body parts, oyster shells, fallen leaves, olive pits and more. I’ve always explored themes around death, transitioning, fragility and the passage of time - themes that will be increasingly common with climate change, overpopulation and extinction. I’ve been especially interested in ethical issues around managing human bodies in the medical field, burial practices and surgical procedures.

Velo de luto (Mourning veil), 2020. Magicicada wings, sewn with hair. Photo credit: Robert Chase Heishman

Given the specific nature of my work, in both it’s time-consuming process and scale, and then the overall fragility of each piece I make, requires that I rely on grants like this to continue sharing my artwork at all. All of the materials I use in my work have been and will always be ethically sourced by my own hand - I carefully scan my environments to choose or incept each new project. For instance, for one of my last pieces Velo de Luto, I had to drive to Kansas from Chicago to collect the wings from the 17 year cicadas that swarmed in that year. I waited for them to die, just as I wait for all of my materials to be discarded or dead before I use them. 

Entre Nosotros (Among Us), 2020. Concrete tiles cast from human dead Donors. Detail. Photo credit: Robert Chase Heishman

Part of the grant will go towards the making of Impresiones de Ausencia (Impressions of Absence), a large memorial to honor all of the individuals that donated their bodies to education and research. Receiving this grant is instrumental to having the resources I need to produce the piece. I feel strongly that these individuals must receive recognition for offering the most generous gift a human has to offer - their body.