Go Do Good Chicago! Kay Rosen’s New Installation Unveiled

Artist Kay Rosen’s message to Chicago..?  GO DO GOOD.  Rosen was in the city this morning along with the Chicago Loop Alliance (CLA) crew to unveil and announce Chicago’s newest summer-long public art installation.

State Street light posts are donned with bright yellow banners displaying vertical text with Rosen’s slogan.  A huge painted mural of the text appears on the side of a building at State and Washington (above Old Navy).  The message also appears on select CTA stops, on mounted information boards, and is stretched horizontally above the width of State Street on the train platform at State / Lake.  Passersby are surrounded by the mantra of doing good deeds – like a direct marketing scheme, minus the subtext of buying.

A follow up to last year’s Tony Tasset Eye & Cardinal display, the CLA describes this second annual installation and the process of interpreting it in three stages – seeing, reading, and performance.  At first glance, the broken up characters (G, D, O) look very similar and sometimes are not immediately readable.  Once the viewer recognizes and reads the full phrase, “Go Do Good”, the final phase of the experience can happen when the viewer takes that message with them and acts upon it.  Rosen hopes “the message will encourage good deeds and gestures, large and small, public and private, and that viewers will act out these words on a daily basis.”

The Go Do Good movement aims to connect art to action and will focus on three areas of quality education over the summer including reading, health, and school preparation.  An initiative of the CLA and in association with United Way of Metro Chicago, this project was created to prepare Chicago’s kids to succeed in school and encourage youth to contribute to their communities and workforce, and to foster support and outreach.  Visit GoDoGoodChicago.com for donation information, sponsor partnerships and a tally of good deeds.  (Also check out the city’s progress at the good deeds barometer between Madison & Washington on State Street!)

A midwest-based artist from Texas, Kay Rosen has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is known for her text-heavy paintings, drawings, collages and installations that play on the connection between language and imagery.  

Left: Ty Tabing, Executive Director, Chicago Loop Alliance.  Right: Kay Rosen