Amends, 2021
A Facility Artwork by Nick Cave and Bob Faust
Vinyl ribbon, marker, steel and acrylic paint
Dimensions vary
Photos by James Prinz
Amends is a multi-component, community-based art project with the goal to eradicate racism—starting with self. Created by Nick Cave and Bob Faust and presented by Facility, it asks individuals to dig deep into themselves to acknowledge and take responsibility for their personal roles in the proliferation of racism through publicly shared confessions and apologies. It is a simple but personally confrontational act of looking in the mirror and acknowledging where each can each make necessary changes for the good of all people immediately, but even more so for the empowerment and success of our successors, our children.
The first component of AMENDS is a collection of handwritten, unapologetically transparent reflections from Chicago leaders titled “Letters to the World Toward the Eradication of Racism.”
Across the street at Carl Schurz Public High School, the project continues as a community-wide expression titled "Dirty Laundry." It asks any and all individuals to identify their own roles in racism and make amends with their fellow human beings by committing these apologies as personal commitments of change on yellow ribbons tied to a clothesline to create a public collection and initiate a community correction.
The final component asks for global participation in the form of a hashtag “#AMENDS.” It is not a call out, but rather a call to action through acknowledgement and subsequent change in each of us.
Nancy Chen, “Unifying America: Wisconsin art exhibit helps heal racial divisions,” CBS Evening News, July 2021
Gisela Williams, “How Chicago Artists Have Made the City Streets a Walking Gallery,” Departures Magazine, March 2021
“Together; Holiday Window Display,” EXPO CHICAGO: Online Dispatch, December 2020
Stephanie Cristello, “Art for Justice: A Roundtable with Nick Cave, Bob Faust, Gabrielle Lyon, and Quintin Williams,” Ocula Magazine, November 2020
“Our Finest Artists Reimagine the Political Poster,” Momentum, October 2020
“#AMENDS Art Installation Invites Discussion About Race,” NBC5 Chicago, July 2020
Vasia Rigou, “Making #AMENDS: Exhaustingly Cathartic, Ultimately Uplifting,” Newcity, July 2020
“Artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust Ask Community to Make #AMENDS,” WTTW News, July 2020
Megan O’Grady, “A Public Art Project Devoted to Dismantling Racism at Every Level,” NY Times Style Magazine, July 2020
