As Uptown Gentrifies, A Local Art Collective Documents Its History

Axis Lab
Axis Lab's now-vacant studio space in the Argyle neighborhood. The collective will be projecting its video art installation onto this space, which it had previously used with permission from the CTA. John Lee / Courtesy of Axis Lab
Axis Lab
Axis Lab's now-vacant studio space in the Argyle neighborhood. The collective will be projecting its video art installation onto this space, which it had previously used with permission from the CTA. John Lee / Courtesy of Axis Lab

As Uptown Gentrifies, A Local Art Collective Documents Its History

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The Uptown neighborhood — home to sizable Chinese and Southeast Asian immigrant communities — is seeing gentrification and the displacement of lower-income residents as well as businesses and nonprofits.

An art and design collective based in the neighborhood, Axis Lab, is putting together a public video art installation with old photos, newspaper clippings and film that document’s neighborhood’s history as an act of artistic resistance to the economic and social forces seeking to erase it. The collective’s executive director and cofounder, artist Patricia Nguyen, joins Reset for more on the art installation.

GUEST: Patricia Nguyen, co-founder and executive director of Axis Lab, visiting assistant professor in Asian-American studies at Northwestern University