PUBLIC COLLECTORS

A note about the concept of eminent domain, found on the sidewalk in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood, May 2013. 

A collection of practice heads in the window of a salon on Western Avenue in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood.

A detail of a hand-painted sign on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood.

Some delicious hand-painted Mexican pastries, offered on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. Cupcake? Cheese cake? Strawberry shortcake? 

Some delicious hand-painted Mexican pastries, offered on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood.

A sign issuing an unusually formal warning to drug pushers, documented yesterday on Chicago’s West side.

A mural on Chicago’s West Side, defaced with gang graffiti.

Could these people have picked a creepier object to hang from their back gate? That the doll is frozen and has icicles hanging off of it isn’t helping matters. Photographed this morning in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood.

A child’s writing practice sheet that blew into our yard in Chicago this week. Looks like more practice is needed. The ‘M’s are pre-printed. What if you name doesn’t begin with an ‘M’?

One year ago today, Public Collectors lost a dear friend: Matt Hanner. Matt was a lot of people’s friend; he was just about the nicest person I’ve ever known.

Shortly after his completely unexpected death, I borrowed two boxes of Hanner’s ephemera and mailed art from Anthony Elms - a longtime friend of mine and a close friend of Matt’s. I made scans of many of these items and Anthony and I discussed putting them online. One year later I still haven’t uploaded the scans. On one hand, I feel badly about the delay in seriously contending with a lot of this material. On the other hand, I struggle with the idea of trying to somehow contain and neatly organize the highly quirky, personal, and varied approach of Matt Hanner’s art. And while I never pretended to understand what a lot of the things he made were about, I’m incredibly sad, still, that there won’t be any more of it.

Matt Hanner’s work took many forms. He made paintings, painted furniture, neon pieces, a truckload of burned CDrs, 35mm slide shows, field recordings, and hundreds of mailed postcards and bits of this and that. A burned CDr of a Boredoms album delivered on my birthday felt no less connected to his art practice than anything else he might create.

Over the next series of posts, I’ll be sharing some of the scans I made of things from the collection of Anthony Elms. Here is a modified postcard of Chicago. The back is stamped and addressed to Anthony but it’s undated because like quite a few of these postcards, Matt just wound up giving them to Anthony rather than mailing them.

Alley life in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood: Beware of dog, because it will definitely get into your trash.

I’m sorry to report that Superman has given up on this world. I just spotted his corpse hanging from a storefront awning on Chicago’s Northwest side.

A banner for a printing business on Chicago’s West side that offers family reunion and R.I.P. shirts. Gang, drug and gun-related deaths are rampant on the West side, resulting in a small industry for portrait t-shirts worn by friends and family to remember the deceased.

Four Halloween photos from 1969, from a collection of family photos I acquired from Swap-O-Rama in Chicago a while back.

One of the less well known places where one can enjoy coffee in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood.