Written by Ruth Lopez
Marisa Morán Jahn, the National Public Housing Museum’s Artist as Instigator, is creating a multi-hued wall covering for the new building that draws inspiration from historic imagery of public housing playgrounds – in particular, the large WPA-era animal sculptures of Edgar Miller in Chicago for the Jane Addams Homes and Benjamino (Benny) Bufano’s smooth creatures for Valencia Gardens in San Francisco. The wallpaper – to be produced by the museum’s exhibition fabricators – will envelop a 190-square-foot corridor on the lower level.
Photographs of Marisa Morán Jahn’s vibrant hand-dyed rainbow wallpaper tiles.
For this digital craft project, Marisa began by isolating figures found in the photographs and printing them on hand-dyed paper. Those sheets of paper were then scanned and Marisa created different variations of repeated patterns. There is no dominant color since Marisa did not limit her use of vibrant pigments. “It’s like a total rainbow,” she said.
Historic photos of Edgar Miller’s Animal Court Sculptures at the Jane Addams Homes in Chicago, IL.
Joy and play seem to be at the heart of Marisa’s practice. One recent project, for example, was a temporary pavilion constructed at the Mextrópoli Architecture Festival in Mexico City using wood from the city’s famous mid-century roller coaster that was dismantled in 2019. That project was co-designed with architect Rafi Segal.
Wallpaper rendering by Marisa Morán Jahn.
In studying the photographs, Marisa was moved by the images of children playing. “I love them,” she said. “They are just having a good time.” Those playgrounds are representative of a time when there was an investment in public housing. “It was a real equity changer,” said Marisa. “And it was well designed.”
Learn about Marisa’s work with the National Public Housing Museum.