Title:  Pyramids of Power: The Black Family


Site:  Henry Booth House
2328 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago

Artists: Nina Cain and John Yancey


Community Participants: 3 youths from the community


Sponsors:  Chicago Public Art Group and Henry Booth House


Year:  1988


Scale:  12 x 19 feet


Materials: Broken ceramic tile


Information:  This ceramic tile mosaic on the Henry Booth House, a community organization that serves the surrounding public housing, consists of three interlocking pyramids and other symbolic elements to suggest the stability, strength, and structure of family. While the piece honors single-parent households, it also affirms the need for men and women to work together to raise children.

The piece, which incorporates Cain’s signature black-and-white right-triangle borders, was made through the “indirect method” in which shaped tiles are laid out face up on a full scale drawing of the work. The tiles are held together with an adhesive paper on the surface until they are mounted on the wall with cement.