William Pope.L: Cliff (2012) and Better (2013)
2012 /2013 - ongoing
Windows on levels 7, 8, and 9, beginning in the SW stairwell of Level 9
Logan Center Tower
Cliff detail
Cliff (2012) and Better (2013)
William Pope.L's Cliff (2012) is a site-specific work, a drawing in vinyl, originally installed as part of the exhibition Wall Text, which closed on February 2, 2013.
Cliff speaks in a contradictory fashion to its surroundings: its peaks and valleys are cast against the ultra-flat Midwestern urban scape that is visible through the windows in all directions. Amidst the incongruous desert cliffs one can make out single letters that spell out a slogan: ON STRIKE FOR BETTER SCHOOLS.
With the extended presentation of Cliff, a bumper sticker was produced with the title Better (2013). The bumper sticker proliferates into the social surround through various means from self-directed actions to roving group action. Putting the bumper sticker on one's vehicle or child's notebook is a flag on a hill declaring that the war for better questions is never over.
-
Pope.L, or William Pope.L as he is sometimes called, was a visual and performance-theater artist and educator who made culture out of contraries. He made multidisciplinary works since the 1970s. He was born in Newark, USA, in the alleyway of a laundromat in 1955. Pope.L did not confront anything. He ran in the opposite direction toward paradox, formal issues, stupidity, maybe race. Among his best known works are the "gasket" performances in which he inserted various parts of his body for long periods of time into holes he created. For the artist, everything was a notation and he was an inscriber. Pope.L work exhibits internationally though he passed away in December of 2023. He was an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts, University of Chicago.