With Love From Haha. Essays And Notes On A Collective Practice

This book marks the end of 20 years of the collaborative art group Haha. Haha was very important in Chicago, and beyond, for developing an art practice that pushed at many boundaries of what could be considered art, how it is made, and who has access to it. Their most influential project, FLOOD, done during the watershed exhibition in Chicago, Culture in Action (1993), had a profound impact on a younger generation of artists. Haha set up a storefront hydroponic garden to raise bacteria-free greens for people living with AIDS/HIV. The storefront also functioned as a meeting and organizing hub, utilized by many different organizations, complete with educational gardens in front and in back of the space. FLOOD lasted well beyond the time frame of the exhibition. It became a touch stone for those wanting to provide art as a service to others, or make socially engaged work beyond the confines of the art gallery/museum sytem.