ALWAYS CHASING RAINBOWS
An installation by Philadelphia artist Jonathan Santoro
As closures continue, we are working on new ways to utilize the Window on Race gallery, a space that is accessible to view by the public 24/7 from the sidewalk. Our first in a series of providing COVID-19-related, Philadelphia-based artist opportunities is an exhibition of work by Jonathan Santoro titled Always Chasing Rainbows.
In reexamining The Wizard of Oz through the lens of both personal and cultural memory, Always Chasing Rainbows transforms Dorothy’s oddly matched companions into an assortment of visual misnomers and objects associated with suburban lawn décor, property protection, and spectated punishment. Here, the window becomes both a voyeuristic stage and a security arena. Always Chasing Rainbows uses The Wizard of Oz as a vehicle to examine a bygone American dream, exploring ideas around nostalgia as both a sickness and a symptom of an increasingly fervent nationalism, spectacle, surveillance capitalism, and dysfunctional familial relationships wherein even love becomes a tool of control.
The exhibition is visible from Race Street at 20th; 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—best views are after dusk. Click here for exact location.
