AMENDS: Nick Cave and Bob Faust

About

AMENDS is a community-based, interactive art project by Chicago-based artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust. The internationally known artists and collaborators created the three-component project in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The ultimate goal of AMENDS is to lay the groundwork for the eradication of racism. AMENDS will bring together the artists, community leaders in the Madison area and the state, and members of the public to complete the three components of the project.

Phases

Presented first in 2020 at the artists’ creative space Facility, in Chicago, AMENDS asks individuals to look inward to acknowledge and take responsibility for their personal role in the proliferation of racism through publicly shared confessions and apologies. The project has three interlocking phases:

Phase I: Letters to the World Toward the Eradication of Racism
Select state and city community leaders will be asked to contribute a letter, a quote, or a note that brings to light their roles surrounding racism through acknowledgements, confessions, and apologies. These letters will be written by the participants on the State Street facing windows of The Shop, with the artists, at the end of May. The event will be filmed so that visitors to the exhibition in The Shop will be able to witness the project’s start and, through the video, hear directly from the artists and others about what the project means to them.

Phase II: Dirty Laundry
The public will be asked to identify the pieces of themselves that have contributed to holding our society back from genuine equality and equity. Individuals will write their response to the prompt on a yellow ribbon and tie it to the AMENDS clothesline. These responses will be solicited at the Museum and placed at various sites within Madison’s communities.

Phase III: Called to Action
In consultation with the artists, MMoCA will program The Shop space for a series of performances that center Black voices by poets, spoken word artists, dancers, and other creatives, and respond to the words written on the Community Clothesline.