Nowhere Collective artisans are designing our next large-scale, community-activated art installation. Led by artists Katy Osborn and Lauren Busiere.
“Hung Up” represents moving past our own individual “hang ups” in the fight against the climate crisis and invites us to find strength in collaboration.
This project is important to the Chicago community because it creates inclusive activities for residents to come together, slow down, and make something meaningful in response to shared environmental and social challenges. By inviting participants to transform discarded plastics and textiles into a collective artwork, Hung Up fosters dialogue around overconsumption and waste while offering a hands-on, restorative experience rooted in care, creativity, and collective pride. In a time marked by division and anxiety, communal art-making provides a powerful counterpoint, strengthening social bonds and reinforcing a sense of shared purpose.
Reclaimed textiles along with other plastic and “curious” objects were sourced from the community and integrated into the Mother Node and “modular mobiles”.
The Mother Node was constructed with a reclaimed broken basketball hoop and armatures sourced from local scrap yards. The modular mobiles bases are coils salvaged from unusable couches.
May 1 - 8, 2026
Rosemont, Illinois
Our first pop up was in the lobby of Fiber+Fabrics Craft Festival and then on display at h+h americas, the largest craft trade show in the US. We invited attendees to customize their strings with beads, notions, and other found objects. These were attached to mini mobiles and displayed alongside our gorgeous Mother. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped lead the hands-on activity while we ran the Trashy Craft Market inside the expo, featuring dozens of upcycling makers and other Trash Smashers.
