I'm a Stranger Here, Mystic Lyon, September 2018-January 2019

CARY REEDER: I'M A STRANGER HERE
September 1-December 2018
Mystic Lyon
​5017 Lyons Avenue
Houston, Texas
 
I’m a Stranger Here is a site-specific window installation that takes a conceptual approach to addressing questions about community resources and assumptions that “strangers” make about neighborhoods that are lower income or racially/ethnically different from their own.
 
This project stems from my background in Urban Planning, which I have a graduate degree in but only briefly pursued as a career before returning to art making. The field still interests me: What resources are needed for communities to thrive? What resources do communities have and which ones do they lack? What assumptions do outsiders make about neighborhoods that have a different income, racial, or ethnic makeup than theirs? What assumptions do I make?
 
The installation represents an abstracted visual “map” of community resources in the Fifth Ward neighborhood surrounding the exhibition space. Creating this installation served as a way for me to be a little less of a stranger and get to know a neighborhood so close to my own yet such a mystery to me.
 
 
Legend for I’m a Stranger Here
Purple – Churches/Worship
Orange - Schools/Community Organizations/Nonprofits
Light Green – General Businesses
Yellow - Restaurants/Fast Food
Pink – Motels/Rooming Houses
Aqua - Grocery Store/Corner Markets


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