English: Provisional Obstruction is a collaborative project between artists Ayesha Singh and Misael Soto, a site specific public installation with an indoor and outdoor element at ACRE Projects, Chicago, Illinois, USA. September 15 - October 9, 2017

Temporary and pragmatic objects and structures, such as scaffolding, are secondary and subservient to what are traditionally seen as more permanent objects and structures. Street-side images, such as advertising, illuminate and support future permanent objects and structures. Scaffolding and public advertising, both ancillary and complementary forms, oftentimes communicate the sale, construction, or restoration of future structures, to benefit a select few. But what if such objects are brought together and used as a means to their own collective end? When dysfunctional in this way, these objects become global signifiers, presenting a reflection, simultaneously projecting the present and the present as the future. What does this action reflect back onto the objects’ usual contexts when they are the foundation and purpose of their own, existing only for themselves?

Misael Soto and I made it our mutual concern to see how far these inquiries could lead us when simultaneously concerned locally and globally. Covering the entire height and width of the facade of ACRE Projects’ Pilsen home, our public installation deviated passersby viewpoints, and disrupted and diverted foot traffic along the sidewalk, becoming the catalyst for conversation birthed from impermanence, and hoping to lead towards shared ideas of stability.