reviews > COVID-19

For one week this summer, the gods partied in all their majestic exuberance. At least that’s how it looked, if you were mortal and had the good fortune to live on or walk down the 1200 block of Loyola Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. That’s where, at ROMAN SUSAN, a sliver of a gallery, the artist Paige Taul projected “It makes me wanna,” a 2:32 minute black-and-white film showing the faces of Black dancers enrapt with the glory of movement. The trick was all in the setup: giant storefront windows filled with visages projected so large they seemed to belong to bodies big enough to hold up the earth, or at least the city. It’s a vision almost more beautiful and optimistic than a person can bear right now, but oh how badly it’s needed.

—Lori Waxman 2020-11-17 9:18 AM