Bio:
Andres L. Hernandez is a Chicago-based artist, designer, and educator who re-imagines the environments we inhabit, and explores the potential of spaces for public dialogue and social action.
Hernandez is co-founder of the Revival Arts Collective, founder and director of the Urban Vacancy Research Initiative, and exhibition design team member for the Museum of the Obama Presidential in Chicago, IL. Hernandez received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a Master of Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is currently Associate Professor of Art Education and Director of the Master of Arts in Art Education program.
Residency Statement/Area of curiosity:
Paradise (Imagining Properly)
“It also addresses a question that has always intrigued Morrison: ‘Why paradise necessitates exclusion.’”
Anna Mulrine. “This side of ‘Paradise’: Toni Morrison defends herself from criticism of her new novel Paradise.” U.S. News & World Report, 19 Jan. 1998.
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“We are the only ones who can imagine paradise, so let’s start imagining it properly so that it isn’t about my way, my land, my borders, my values, and keeping out you and you and you. We’re the only ones who can do that. So —think it up…”
“…Yes,” she says patiently. “The chances of paradise are small. So what?”
David Streitfeld. “The Novelist’s Prism.” Washington Post, 6 Jan. 1998.
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My residency work, tentatively entitled Paradise (Imagining Properly), will focus on imaging and imagining “paradise.” Paradise is understood as the conceptual end product of quests for African-American self-determination, and which physically manifests in the creation of autonomous settlements. This work will primarily reference Toni Morrison’s book Paradise, as well as the Republic of New Africa’s proposed settlement, El Malik, as inspiration.
