‘I’m Roofless NOT Homeless’ can be seen at the Salt Lake Community College (Salt Lake City, UT) through May 30, 2025. This is the last time you can see all eight of Louise Weir’s busts of mentally ill homeless people in this exhibition with Suzanne Storer, NSS. Learn More

The exhibit comprises twenty-two narrative relief sculptures and eight busts of unhoused individuals created by Suzanne Storer and Louise Solecki Weir to humanize the plight of the unhoused and help viewers understand the diverse paths leading to homelessness.

The sculptures tell the stories of lives struck by illness or disaster, individuals abandoned to the streets at a tender age, and the consequences of poor choices or untreated mental illness – each narrative unfolds in its own way, as unique as the individuals experiencing those circumstances. Presented as art, the subjects become objects for study and reflection, providing a unique opportunity for viewers to explore the diverse paths leading to homelessness.

Storer’s contributions were inspired by her experiences working with residents at her local resource center, where she learned that many of the residents were little different than herself, yet their circumstances were worlds apart. Her twenty-two tableaus share insights into their subjects’ worlds, connecting the viewers to those worlds with the hope of changing the way we collectively treat the unhoused.

Weir’s eight busts are portraits of individuals suffering from mental illness or brain damage. She uses classical portrait busts to illuminate our contemporary struggle with marginalization, juxtaposing her subjects’ abjectness with the traditional use of portrait sculpture: depicting historically celebrated or heroic figures. Unlike traditional heroic figures, these sculptures represent ordinary people, prompting viewers to contemplate the heroism within the struggles of the often overlooked.