SHIKAAKWA: Allium Otherworld, 2026. © Olalekan Jeyifous.
Chicago takes its name from Shikaakwa, an Algonquin word commonly translated as “wild onion,” “garlic,” or “striped skunk,” referring to the pungent ramps that once flourished in the marshlands long before the city was built. Before its river was reversed and its land engineered, the region was a mosaic of peat bog, prairie, and shallow wetland.
SHIKAAKWA unfolds as a continuous architectural cross-section through a Louis Sullivan-inspired office tower, descending from ornate corporate interiors through mechanical systems, geological strata, and into a mythical landscape far below. Floor slabs dissolve into sewers, soil, and root systems before giving way to an alliaceous dreamworld of bioluminescent fields, mycelial transit networks, and cathedral-like chambers of wild grasses and luminous wetland flora.
Rendered in a saturated, retro-futurist palette of deep greens and blues, luminous corals, ochres, and lavender, the landscape takes on the graphic quality of a psychedelic architectural illustration. Designed for the extreme horizontal format of the 150 Media Stream, the work becomes an ethereal sectional drift through an otherworldly reimagining of Chicago’s submerged ecological past.
ABOUT 150 MEDIA STREAM
Located in the lobby of 150 N Riverside Plaza in Chicago, the 150 Media Stream is a public digital art installation divided into 89 LED blades. It stretches over 150 feet long and reaches 22 feet high, the largest structure of its kind in the city. Launched in 2017, the 150 Media Stream has showcased over fifty commissioned works by emerging and renowned local and international media artists. The 150 Media Stream Arts Program also includes strategic partnerships with many major institutions and university fine arts programs in the city and provides a forum for students and cultural practitioners to exhibit and promote their work in a dynamic and iconic environment.
