Jordan Weber’s All Our Liberations is a week-long art installation and space for community learning, reflection, and healing. Inspired by Japanese Zen gardens and designed for community gatherings, the interior of the Spring Church features a three-tiered sculpture with black obsidian stones—used by many cultures as spiritual elements to protect the body and practice food security. Each stone includes a bronze plaque serving as a monument to community organizations selected by Weber for their important work toward addressing social and environmental injustices in St. Louis. The structure’s wooden tiers are painted with a section of a poem by St. Louis-based poet and storyteller Cheeraz Gormon.
Working with St. Louis collaborators he met during his 2021 residency Weber will host a series of programs for both formerly incarcerated individuals and members of the public. Urban farmers, healers, and organizers from Close the Workhouse—a local campaign working to end mass incarceration—will partner to host programming.
In April 2023, Weber will expand All Our Liberations as a part of Counterpublic, a city-wide arts triennial. Counterpublic will present a permanent wetland and sculptural installation that functions as a site of racial and ecological repair, curated by Associate Curator at Creative Time Diya Vij and presented in collaboration with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
Jordan Weber (b. 1984) is a Midwest-based land sculptor and activist. Weber’s work addresses social injustices and environmental racism. In 2020 Weber was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to create an urban farm in North Minneapolis called Prototype for Poetry vs Rhetoric (deep roots). The farm serves as a remediation tactic that addresses the industrial violence that has affected biodiversity within this predominantly Black community. He is currently in residence at Harvard as the inaugural LOEB/ArtLab Fellow and Yale as the inaugural AIR at Beinecke Library of Rare Manuscripts. Awards and fellowships include the 2022 United States Artist Award, Joan Mitchell Award for Sculptors, Creative Capital NYC Award, A Blade of Grass fellowship NYC and the African American Leadership Award.
