Installed on the Art Institute of Chicago’s Woman’s Board Grand Staircase, Public Notice 3 is a site-specific installation by Jitish Kallat that occupies all 118 stair risers. Rather than existing within a gallery, the work is integrated directly into a primary circulation space. This requires visitors to encounter the installation as they move through the museum.
Each stair riser features illuminated text drawn from Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda’s speech delivered on September 11, 1893, at the World’s Parliament of Religions, which took place in the same building complex that now houses the Art Institute. The excerpts appear in alternating bands of red, orange, yellow, blue, and green LED light, creating a structured visual system that unfolds sequentially as visitors ascend or descend the staircase.
The color palette references the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s post-9/11 threat advisory system. By combining this contemporary visual code with a 19th-century speech advocating religious tolerance and coexistence, the installation establishes a direct relationship between historical ideals and modern systems of public alert. The work links two September 11 dates, 1893 and 2001, positioning the staircase as a physical and conceptual site where these moments intersect.
Because the text is placed underfoot rather than on walls, engagement with the work is unavoidable and continuous. Reading occurs through movement, and the staircase functions as both architectural structure and display surface. This format emphasizes the role of the body in navigating history, language, and space.
By situating Public Notice 3 on the Grand Staircase, a space typically treated as functional rather than contemplative, Kallat reframes the act of passage as an opportunity for sustained attention. The installation demonstrates how architecture can operate as a carrier of meaning, using a transitional zone to foreground historical continuity and ongoing relevance of Vivekananda’s message in a contemporary context.
Jitish Kallat’s Public Notice 3 transforms the Art Institute of Chicago’s Woman’s Board Grand Staircase, covering all 118 steps with illuminated text that visitors read as they walk.
The illuminated text draws from Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda’s 1893 speech at the World’s Parliament of Religions.
The speech took place in the same building it is now embedded in, linking the site’s history to the present.
By embedding the artwork into a staircase rather than isolating it in a gallery, Kallat emphasizes how historical ideas continue to shape everyday movement and behavior.
Here’s a first-person view of what it looks like climbing these stairs.
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