Radioactive: Stories from Beyond the Wall

Radioactive: Stories from Beyond the Wall is a series of community-engaged radio/visual broadcasts located between the largest architecture of Chicago’s West Side, the Cook County Jail, and the working-class residential area of the Lawndale communities. Radioactive centers the voices of those currently incarcerated by broadcasting and projecting intimate and creative stories from inside Cook County Jail to outside its' border. 

On September 15-16, 2018, the project debuted in a large-scale public art event at the north-end wall of Cook County Jail. Community members, passersby, and members of the ensemble gathered to watch the North-side wall bordering the Cook County jail become a screen transformed by audio and animations created by currently and previously detained individuals.

Supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Artist As Activist Fellowship and the Creative Capital Foundation.

Radioactive: Stories from Beyond the Wall
2016-2018
Site Intervention
Dimensions Variable

Photo documentation: Sarah J. Rhee

Maria Gaspar, Lead Artist

Workshop Instruction | Maria Gaspar and Michael de Anda Muniz

Radioactive Ensemble: Eduardo Alanis, Rahmon Ali, Edgar Arce, Anthony C.Bailey, Paris Baker, Frederick Barker, Jacob Barth, Marlon Baymon, Rodney Cal, Christopher Coleman, James Collier, JD Edwards, Luis Encarnacion, Michael M. Evans, Pedro Gonzalez, Joseph Grant, Steve Hatfield, Martin Howard-Paez (“Sick of Sin”), Gary Johns (“Gypsy”), Douglas Johnson, David Kahles, Anthony Miller, Alex V. Petik, Paul G. Robert Jr., Paul Robert, Enrique Ruiz, Pedro Sarmiento, James Skoda, Alex “Good Tree” Soto, Masean Spencer, Jessie Sulk, James Taylor, Herbert L. Turner Jr.

Videography | Benjamin Kolak at Scrappers Film Group.

Animation editing and design | Giorgia Harvey and Benjamin Kolak at Scrappers Film Group

Sound engineering and design | Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio

Project support | Allison Cochrane

Instructional recording support | Rocio Santos

Radio broadcast and production support | Lumpen Radio and Free Write Sound and Vision

Exhibition view:

Installation @ Frieze LA as part of the Frieze Impact Prize alongside artists Dread Scott and Mary Baxter