Interview Turning garbage into art

Located in the heart of Logan Square, People Projects is one-third living space, one-third basement punk-rock venue, and one-third art gallery. The first two-thirds are hidden from public view, but the storefront-turned-art gallery is readily available to anyone. Resident gallery organizer Ryan Duggan has orchestrated unusual exhibitions such as paintings of sex offenders, a half-pipe skateboard ramp open to the public, a wood-based Porsche 911, memorabilia from Chicago's punk past, and the complete works of an unknown, deceased Chicago photographer whose pieces were discovered in a trash bin after being thrown out by his son.

After two years of hosting bands and artists, People Projects has only one exhibition left before closing shop in early October: The current Landscape project emphasizes the amount of fragrant litter that clutters Chicago by centralizing it within PP's walls. The A.V. Club spoke to Duggan about the gallery, garbage, and the tedium of mattress stores.

A.V. Club: How did you get interested in becoming a "gallery guy"?
Ryan Duggan: I'm fascinated by the interaction between people on the street and art. If it's not just paintings on the walls, people seem to be confused by what the hell [People Projects] is. Being street level, we can have the door open and people can just come in and check it out if they want. Especially given where we are, it helps break up the monotony of mattress store, clothing store, mattress store.
AVC: What was the inspiration for your litter exhibition?
RD: I'm a dog walker, so I'm walking around everywhere. I just started noticing litter more and more, especially as it gets warm out. Everybody walks in the city, and there's just tons of shit. I walk dogs in a very fancy neighborhood in the Gold Coast, where people get paid to clean that shit up. In Logan Square, it sits and never goes anywhere. A year ago, I started cleaning up the block around the Congress Theater, from Maplewood to Rockwell, and just trying to keep that clean was an effort. It was insane. I don't think people pay attention to what they're walking past for the most part. They're just going from point A to point B, so I thought it would be interesting to put all of that litter together into one mass of shit, so it's unavoidable. It's going to be a lot of fucking litter.
AVC: Are people going to want to look at garbage?
RD: We'll see what happens. I'm going to fill the walls of the gallery with this stuff. There will be gallery hours, but not too much, because the main focus will be the end, when the exhibition's at its peak. Until then, you'll be able to see it growing on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I think it'll be interesting with all of the color and text. My main goal is to stop and be like, "Holy shit, all of this came from one stretch of street?"
AVC: What area are you going to collect litter from?
RD: The 2100 block of Milwaukee Avenue. Roughly Western to California.
AVC: Are you going to gather this trash all by yourself?
RD: I've already had a few people offer to help out when I need to go around and collect stuff. It's going to be a People Projects thing, but I'll be spearheading it.
AVC: Without the esteem of being a well-known gallery, why do you go through the struggle of putting on art shows?
RD: It's fun. I like to do it, even though sometimes it's a pain in the ass. There's people I know who I feel should be showing work, and People Projects is a venue that's visible and accessible. More so than that, it's a space for me to do whatever I want. I could never do half of this shit without the space to create it and then show it. I have a 16-foot-by-16-foot room that people are walking past every day; what can I do to break up the monotony of Logan Square? I like to just put something in front of the public and see what happens.

People Projects is located at 2129 N. Milwaukee Ave. Admission to the gallery is free. Call 773-474-0979 for hours and information.