Homeless - Powerless
Metro-Dade Cultural Resource Center Opens With Installation by Sheila Elias.
Tropical Tribune
October 5, 1994
Chicago born Sheila Elias, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, is an established internationally acclaimed artist. Her works have been featured in exhibitions coast to coast and has accorded international acclaim such as the Liberty show at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Elias has been doing installations reflecting her studio’s neighborhood since the 1980’s and she has received recognition for her unique vision blending social consciousness with the aesthetic of art.
The current installation HOMELESS POWERLESS depicts the plight of the have-nots versus the privileged society. Part of the gallery has the articles about the homeless papered to cardboard figures that have a kinetic appearance. The other side of the gallery has paraphernalia as a metaphor for the elite society.
Some of Elias’ previous installations were: Rescue Mission One, 1980, Elias gave 750 bags to street people in front of the rescue mission in Los Angeles California. Each bag was handpainted with a symbol of the Pompidou museum this event brought the symbol of a museum to street people who understood art in an innate sense.
In Tribute to LA Street People, 1981, Elias hung an 84 foot line across San Pedro street form the top of one building to another with 6’x5’ foot shopping bags on the line. Painted on the front of these bags was the repeated image of the
Pompidou Museum.
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