Americo Speed

Celebrating the Spirits

A site specific installation at Cargill Lounge, Walker Art Center commemorating Americo Speed, an unhoused artist who died shortly after being deported to Mexico. The installation is a visual representation of a Mexican board game “Serpientes y Escaleras” (similar to Chutes and Ladders), a game of chance where players roll a single die in hopes to reach—the Hundredth Square. One advances when the player lands on a good deed and is penalized for bad behavior. The work challenges misconceptions of poverty and socioeconomic disadvantages to encourage us to remember our own mortality by acknowledging how death is the great equalizer--something shared by all-- no matter our race, ethnicity or placement in society.