Biennial Project

Easy Like Sunday Morning— North Lawndale, 2019
Inkjet prints

Commissioned by the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial

Akinbode Akinbiyi documents urban landscapes while meandering the streets and highways, especially on the African continent. Easy Like Sunday Morning—North Lawndale resulted from the artist’s monthlong residency in Homan Square in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood, cohosted by the Chicago Architecture Biennial and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Throughout the month, Akinbiyi met many students, artists, activists, and neighbors, and hosted three open photography workshops. Here, a set of photographs shows exclusively North Lawndale, while a second set shows other neighborhoods, establishing subtle parallels and dialogues. Akinbiyi sought to capture North Lawndale’s essence through his unique method of quietly wandering, looking, listening, and photographing. With each daily walk, he began to understand local everyday life and perceive, in his words, “the coming together of the invisible threads woven by the community.”