Bush & Gerts (Piano)  &  Bauhaus Burroughs Gallery (South West Wall)
Health Club

Hyde Park Art Center, 2018

Health Club presented work by Faheem Majeed alongside Nelly Agassi, Balas & Wax, Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska, FieldWork, Charo Garaigorta, Kevin Miyazaki, and Bridget O’Gorman, considering the interdependence of human wellness and constructed notions of place. Not in obvious sites like gyms or spas, but in seemingly benevolent spaces—museums, hospitals, or parks—the exhibition examined how society relies on the built environment to foster physical and mental health.

For this presentation, Majeed contributed two graphite and charcoal frottages from his ongoing Demise Shrouds series. One large-scale rubbing captured a section of the Margaret Burroughs Gallery at the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC), while the other traced the surface of the piano that anchored the same space. Through the slow, tactile process of rubbing, Majeed translated the architecture and objects of the SSCAC into veiled impressions that carried the presence of touch, history, and care. His works evoked the labor of maintenance and remembrance—acts essential to the health of cultural ecosystems that have long sustained Black artists and communities.

Featuring drawing, installation, painting, photography, and video, Health Club highlighted the layered intentions embedded in civic and leisure sites that nurtured both public and private growth, prompting viewers to reflect on how their bodies moved through these spaces and on their role in realizing the ideals such environments once proposed.

Curated by Allison Peters Quinn