The significance of this election goes beyond red vs. blue. During a time of heightened unrest, it’s for the overwhelmed hospitals and the frontline workers deployed there. It’s for the activists taken to the streets to be heard; it’s our remembrance of the over 221,000 loved ones lost during the pandemic. This election is a reckoning that the country is far from ok and has forefront the importance and immediacy of voting.

With support from Chicago’s art residency spaces Annas and ACRE, When they go low, we vote aims to cultivate voter enthusiasm through mobilized imagery. Utilizing a passenger van as a canvas transports the urgency of this election to home doorsteps, businesses, and communities throughout the city. These calls for change are emboldened in Chicago painter Hailey Losselyong’s coverage of the van’s exterior to encourage more people to be active voters.

The van’s call to action is achieved through its painted exterior by Losselyong to convey positive momentum around voting. Painted text and illustrations across the exterior are imbued with calls to act in spite of discouragement from national leadership. Complementing its exterior are informative handouts freely accessible to anyone which includes sample ballots, useful steps to voting and important election dates.

Voting history, with continuous fights for equality and visibility, reveals what’s at stake. Our nation’s winner-take-all system has conditioned entire regions against voting and has relied on the (in)activity of the critical mass. Our decision to choose a better footing in the right direction begins with eligible voters showing turning out and has desperately come to a matter of life and death.

When they go low, we vote is curated and organized by Annas’ 2020 Fellow Ellington Bramwell. Design is by Ally Fouts. Special thanks to ACRE and Vault Gallerie for their resources and assistance.