Ann Slavit is a community artist and organizer whose work aims to humorously address and at times socially confront, the challenges facing immigrants, the working poor, and people with disabilities. Slavit figures her work ought to have something to do with reducing the discouraging effects of social boundaries and cultural barriers, and their physical representations in monuments, buildings, and public parks. Ann Slavic: ‘This is where the uneven lines exist, and where, whether we see them or not. They remain deep and divisive.’ Christo and Jean-Claude are for her cultural heroes who have re-envisioned the perceived world by making its hidden and obvious features more evident and even more beautiful.
Slavit has long been interested in creating a greater, more immediate and intimately shared common physical space. The visual arts have been her tool to help create a welcoming bridge into our public spaces, and to connect culturally and economically separated people in the community at large. ‘Bridging gaps and working to close rifts have been a life-long interest of mine,’ she says. ‘My work supports a connection between myself and others who also seek relief from the madness and injustice of what remains a very difficult and unwelcoming society and culture.’
