Born and raised Little Village community member takes a stand on environmental racism through art.
Little Village is very much known in the Chicagoland area, but what isn’t known much about is the environmental problems. Artist and community member Sebastian Silverio wanted to express his concern and bring awareness through art.
“Art can spread a message and bring awareness.” Silverio states.
His latest piece, “Hell no to Hilco” highlights just how much of an impact the demolition has taken on residences and how this is a result of environmental racism. Silverio felt that since this issue was arrupting in his community, that he had to place his voice on the matter as well and help in any way he could.
Little Village residents have been unhappy over the past few months because of the constant battle of environmental injustice with Hilco and the approval of a demolition of an old coal-fired power plant. Hilco Redevelopment partners is a redeveloping company that focuses their projects on older buildings and turn them into economic opportunity. On April 11th, Little village residents were unaware of any demolition, it wasn’t until they were in a dust cloud. To learn more about this situation, As Little Village restarts, dust seen Billowing at Hilco site in new video.
Sebastian Silverio, a born and raised Little Village artist has an exhibit of his collection of pieces that he has been working to put together for three years. His earliest art piece in his exhibit dates back to 2017, on July 8th Silverio added his Hell No Hilco piece to his art exhibit highlighting the environmental racism Little Village is currently fighting, and giving us a residential perspective of this event and its effects.
What sparked inspiration for Silverio was to continue to bring awareness to the fight for environmental justice in Little Village. Silverio wanted to give a visual perspective of this event and its effects beyond print media. Silverio’s artwork has always been inspired by the Little Village Community.
“My work has always been involved around the Vitta. It’s always been in the background, it’s always been in some of my characters. It’s such a huge part of me, so when this happened, it was like something happened to me personally.”
His “Hell no to Hilco” piece illustrates not only how the dust cloud affects the environment but the Little Village residents as well, and how this situation has been pushed aside. It wasn’t until residents like Siverio wanted to take a stand against environmental racism and express this the best way they could.
Silverio’s 36x48 “Hell no to Hilco '' piece took him two to three weeks to paint, and can be seen at “Blick art materials' ' on 42 S State St along with his other paintings as well. To see more of Silverio’s work check out his https://www.instagram.com/sebaasil_art/.