Red Stain on Philadelphia

by Karen Schupack

“My current work synthesizes years of artistic exploration in many mediums. It incorporates my background studying and working in urban environments and for social justice. I started to explore connections between abstract ideas, art making processes and visual language. I was stymied by the limitations of my most familiar mediums of paint, collage and encaustic. Instead, I found that the layering and stitching of fabric was far more effective at communicating these complex ideas visually. Opaque fabric, transparent silk, thread variations, and machine and hand stitching worked well to represent and map the layered complexity of urban development, which I then augmented with paint and printmaking. I started with works about our government’s racist use of redlining in places where I had lived. With a foundation of personal connection to the cities, and throughout my slow and tactile artistic process, I was able to consider deeply the profound effects of redlining on a block-by-block basis. The resulting pieces reflect how this process, which began in the 1930’s, resulted in isolating and impoverishing minority communities. Ideas about race, class, entitlement, and privilege that many of us no longer believe, have shaped our built environment in ways that continue to influence the distribution of wealth and opportunities in our society.”