Not Your Ordinary Clown Parade

In an installation at once humorous and grave, artist Adrian Wong brings his ongoing engagement with the clown community to The Arts Club of Chicago Garden. Large-scale, egg-shaped sculptures that feature clown facial designs populate the space. These works derive from Wong’s in-depth conversations with practitioners of the clowning arts, and his recognition of the complex identities that these performers occupy, many of whom are also military veterans. Jay-Jay the Clown, whose likeness is portrayed in the garden installation, marches annually with a troupe of clown performers in Wauconda, Illinois’ Memorial Day Parade. To commemorate Wong’s Garden Project and to bring the aforementioned complexities of identity in the work of clowning to the fore, Jay-Jay and compatriots come to The Arts Club for a contemplative march in memory of their fallen troupe members and others who lost their lives serving in the armed forces. Not your ordinary clown parade, they’ll don red noses in acknowledgement of their clown identities (but forego most other costume elements out of respect for the dead) and traipse up and down Ontario Street as well as through The Arts Club and its grounds with accompanying military salute and instruments. Join for a reception and conversation afterward.