My Opponents: Coronavirus. Unofficial Collab (Leon Thoughtsky x City of Chicago x DXO x CDC)
I admire Leon Thoughtsky— he’s one of the most thoughtful and prolific Arte Agora artists working today who is “exposing absurdity in the American dialectic one hand painted poster at a time”.
Screenshot of Leon Thoughtsky Instagram page, October 2021
In early September I encountered this piece:
“My Opponents…” by Leon Thoughtsky, partly obscured by white paint.
It was placed on the now-vacant Tocco Restaurant, next to Shuga Records on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago:
1270 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622, via Google Street View, June 2021
The piece had already been partly buffed by the City of Chicago, but I recognized it from two other spots over the last few months:
“My opponents have an agenda / I am wise and benevolent” by Leon Thoughtsky, placed near 1329-1355 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622, March 2021 “My opponents have an agenda / I am wise and benevolent” by Leon Thoughtsky, placed near 1128 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60622, March 2021
I removed the piece and brought it home.
Work by Leon Thoughtsky after removal from the public way.
This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. In this view, the protein particles E, S, and M, also located on the outer surface of the particle, have all been labeled as well. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
I went to see my friends at FedEx Kinkos, printed out a big copy of it, spray-mounted it to the piece, and I posted it up over here:
My Opponents: Coronavirus. Unofficial collab (Leon Thoughtsky x City of Chicago x DXO x CDC)
