Difference between revisions of "Freedom Wall"
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The work has no title, nor signature, but artist Adam Brooks explained the list of names are all people who represent the idea of ''"freedom"''. Brooks asked several of his friends and colleagues, but - to have some ideological balance - also asked political conservatives and civic teachers who polled their students to suggest names. He ended up with 800 different names, from which he selected the 69 names most frequently mentioned and included one space blank, representing the people who ''"didn't know what freedom was, or if it even existed."''<ref>https://chicagoreader.com/news/zoom-in-river-north/</ref> | The work has no title, nor signature, but artist Adam Brooks explained the list of names are all people who represent the idea of ''"freedom"''. Brooks asked several of his friends and colleagues, but - to have some ideological balance - also asked political conservatives and civic teachers who polled their students to suggest names. He ended up with 800 different names, from which he selected the 69 names most frequently mentioned and included one space blank, representing the people who ''"didn't know what freedom was, or if it even existed."''<ref>https://chicagoreader.com/news/zoom-in-river-north/</ref> | ||
| − | The list of names features a blank line under the name ''Frank Zappa'''. Brooks explained: ''"I think six people responded saying that they really didn’t feel that one name could sufficiently embody the idea of freedom. And in fact, one respondent actually said she didn’t know what freedom was and seriously doubted that it existed. And so it was important to me to recognize the fact that actually some people refuse to participate. In hindsight, it also functioned as a space into which passersby could potentially, mentally, insert their own choice."'' | + | The list of names features a blank line under the name '''Frank Zappa'''. Brooks explained: ''"I think six people responded saying that they really didn’t feel that one name could sufficiently embody the idea of freedom. And in fact, one respondent actually said she didn’t know what freedom was and seriously doubted that it existed. And so it was important to me to recognize the fact that actually some people refuse to participate. In hindsight, it also functioned as a space into which passersby could potentially, mentally, insert their own choice."'' |
==Names on the list (from top to bottom)== | ==Names on the list (from top to bottom)== | ||
Latest revision as of 05:16, 9 August 2026
Freedom Wall was an art installation, made by artist Adam Brooks. Inaugurated in August 1994, [1] it was located at 325 W. Huron Street in River North in Chicago, Illinois, and consisted of a long black vinyl banner on a wall, featuring hand-painted names (painted by Bob Morales), one of them being Frank Zappa. Since 2022, the Freedom Wall is hidden by another building. [2]
The work has no title, nor signature, but artist Adam Brooks explained the list of names are all people who represent the idea of "freedom". Brooks asked several of his friends and colleagues, but - to have some ideological balance - also asked political conservatives and civic teachers who polled their students to suggest names. He ended up with 800 different names, from which he selected the 69 names most frequently mentioned and included one space blank, representing the people who "didn't know what freedom was, or if it even existed."[3]
The list of names features a blank line under the name Frank Zappa. Brooks explained: "I think six people responded saying that they really didn’t feel that one name could sufficiently embody the idea of freedom. And in fact, one respondent actually said she didn’t know what freedom was and seriously doubted that it existed. And so it was important to me to recognize the fact that actually some people refuse to participate. In hindsight, it also functioned as a space into which passersby could potentially, mentally, insert their own choice."
Names on the list (from top to bottom)
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Abraham Lincoln
- Harriet Tubman
- Rosa Parks
- Nelson Mandela
- John F. Kennedy
- Susan B. Anthony
- Malcolm X
- Mahatma Gandhi
- George Washington
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thurgood Marshall
- Jesus Christ
- Cesar Chavez
- Sojourner Truth
- Margaret Sanger
- Moses
- Mother Theresa
- Dalai Lama
- Lenny Bruce
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Ayn Rand
- John Lennon
- Noam Chomsky
- Harvey Milk
- Maya Angelou
- Frederick Douglass
- Emma Goldman
- Anwar Sadat
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Henry Thoreau
- Anita Hill
- Rush Limbaugh
- Rigoberta Menchu
- Geronimo
- Saul Alinsky
- Winston Churchill
- Anne Frank
- Bell Hooks
- Aung San Suu Kui
- John Stuart Mill
- Jimmy Carter
- James Joyce
- Jack Kevorkian
- Ronald Reagan
- Robert Mapplethorpe
- John Brown
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Václav Havel
- Frank Zappa
- Carl Djerassi
- Ida B. Wells
- Galileo
- Johannes Gutenberg
- Stephen Biko
- Muhammad Ali
- Socrates
- William Blake
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Barbara Jordan
- Buddha
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Albert Einstein
- Wilma Mankiller
- Marian Wright Edelmann
- Marcel Duchamp
- Harold Washington
- Lucy Parsons
- Elie Wiesel
