Page 97 - David Bermant Foundation

SHOPPING CENTERSNANCY RUBINS Big Bil-Bored 1990The ArT & hISTory of cerMAk PlAzABy David AldrichWhat in the world would ever cause a strip mall to become famous? You can spruce them up, modernize them, give ‘em facelifts, and there’s not the remotest chance these things will bring fame. No, it takes something drastic. And that’s exactly what happened in the case of Cermak Plaza, a circa-1956 shopping center in Chicago’s suburbs, when it became home to some huge (and hugely controversial) modern art pieces in the 1980s.CaptionMy first exposure to Cermak Plaza came around 1975, when my family moved from the Northwest suburbs to the Near West suburbs. One day, I noticed some scaffolding in the Cermak Plaza parking lot, surrounding what looked for all the world like a giant mud pie on a pedestal. As it turned out, what was taking place was the creation of a gigantic piece of modern art, the work of Nancy Rubins, an artist based in New York City’s Soho district. The “pork chop shaped” sculpture, called “Big Bil-Bored,” would stand three stories tall and was embedded with the flotsam of the American consumer culture—old portable televisions, (continued on page 98)96CERMAK PLAZA