Mia Rimmer’s vision of a perfect summer day can be found in the viaduct at 53rd Street and the Metra tracks in Hyde Park.
Under the Metra Electric Line route hangs a giant photograph of a collage that Rimmer crafted with colorful magazine cutouts, depicting a hot day at Promontory Point. A bicycle is parked next to a girl who’s laying on a blanket and reading, flip flops kicked off in front of her. A black-and-white dog meanders nearby. In the water, a boy and a girl float on their backs while ducks cruise nearby. Crossed legs depict the shoed feet of seated spectators gazing at the lake.
“Sweet Lake Michigan,” Rimmer says. “I find the lake to be such a place of respite.”
Rimmer’s collage is one of 19 colorful new murals to grace the viaducts of 53rd and 55th streets under the Metra tracks in Hyde Park.
The project was two years in the making, and the murals were chosen from about 600 submissions. Each image, printed on vinyl and hung on metal panels, was installed in mid-May.
The murals were commissioned by the Special Service Area #61/Downtown Hyde Park, Chicago Public Art Group and the South East Chicago Commission to create an inviting link tying the business corridors on either side of the tracks.
A University of Chicago alum, Rimmer started her collage while living in Hyde Park. She since moved back to Milwaukee, her hometown.
Under the 55th Street viaduct, Lewis Lain of Rogers Park says his image of a sun bursting over the lake’s horizon represents “this singular moment that we consider extraordinary.”
On 53rd Street, Jihye Shin says her mural is “my exploration of belonging.” A native of Korea, Shin has been living in Hyde Park for about nine years.
“I began thinking about the places I call home,” she says, and remembered visiting Navy Pier with friends and family.
She says she tried to capture the wonder she saw there in kids’ eyes. The result: a mural with Navy Pier’s Ferris wheel and carousel and the lake’s waves shown in a traditional Korean artistic style.
Also on 53rd Street is a mural by Indigo Quashie with drawings of six people dressed in various colors and inspired by traditional Ghanaian style. The pattern in the background, called nyankonton, “represents the beauty of the rainbow,” according to Quashie, who lives in Hyde Park.
Quashie says they symbolize Ghana and the queer community — the country where Quashie’s family is from and the community Quashie belongs to in Chicago.
“This is a homage to my people and my blood and my history,” Quashie says.