The New Gotham Ballroom: One night only! June 8th
Join us for our annual spring gala, The New Gotham Ballroom, a pop-up 1930s era night-club at the Stan Mansion with dinner by Chef Jared Wentworth and Longman & Eagle. Tickets on sale now!
threewalls blog - residents
Adia Millett: Portraits of an Escape
posted March 3, 2012 in events, residents
Past resident artist Adia Millett has a solo show at Mixed Greens. Stop by if you're in NY!
Camlab: Two in the Bush
posted February 28, 2012 in events, residents
From past residents Camlab:
Please join us this Thursday evening March 1st from 7-10pm for Two in the Bush at MOCA (Grand Ave)
In response to an economy gone to the birds, this third installment in CamLab’s Engagement Party residency will “instrumentalize” money and intention in a large-scale hands-on group gathering. Longtime “economicalists,” the members of CamLab invite you into their efficiently excessive installation for a material meditation on the distribution of resources. While occupying a cipher of fabric and song, participants will address their immediate surroundings by graphically converting cash amid the sounds of steel (oil) drumming. Join us to find your sense of re-purpose and build collectivity with conversation and contemplation, not walls with wealth. Make audible your values. CamLab will don “Feast and Famine” outfits designed by Australian artist Glenda Wyman. At the end of the evening, the duo’s Engagement Party series will conclude with a celebratory live performance by Hotel La Rut.
CamLab has apportioned a part of its series’ budget to W.A.G.E. Working Artists and the Greater Economy, in an effort to support the group’s continued work ‘to draw attention to economic equalities that exist in the arts, and to resolve them.'
Bia Gayotto: Resident Update
posted December 10, 2011 in news, residents | tags: bia gayotto, residents
Bia Gayotto spent her May 2011 residency conducting interviews with bicultural Chicago residents. Full versions of her interviews are now available on our website here. The project has developed into a two channel video installation titled Somewhere in Between: Chicago 2011, and will also be included in Home – Place - Community: International Sociological Perspectives, by editors Margarethe Kusenbach, Krista Paulsen, and Melinda Milligan, and Peter Lang International Academic Publishers (Frankfurt, New York, Oxford). Bia has also been invited to be a fellow resident at Montalvo Arts Center where she plans to continue working on this project.
Casey Droege: Tracks of my Tears
posted July 23, 2011 in residents | tags: casey droege, residents
Help fund this project by threewalls artist in resdience, Casey Droege!
"For my current project "Tracks of my Tears" I have compiled a list of every song that has made me cry, dating back to 1991. (It gets a little fuzzier before that.) For each song, I've written and recorded a story about the moment I remember tears being induced. The recordings will be pressed into a limited edition run of 100 colorful 12 in. records."
More information is available at kickstarter.com
Gitte Bog: Art of Work
posted July 16, 2011 in events, residents | tags: gitte bog, residents
Gitte Bog's recent work is included in "Art of Work," an exhibition focusing on art and labor. Her piece, "La Chalana" stemmed from an interest and exploration into shoe shining. More information about that piece and other work in the show can be found here: Chicago Art Magazine. Gitte Bog completed a thematic residency at threewalls in the summer of 2009.
"Art of Work” is currently on view at Waubonsee Community College:
Arrowhead Room Gallery
Waubonsee Community College
Rt. 47 at Waubonsee Drive
Sugar Grove, IL 60554-9454
Rena Leinberger and Erin Thurlow at Smack Mellon
posted June 4, 2011 in residents
Erin Thurlow and Rena Leinberger, two past artists in residence, will be participating in an upcoming show at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, New York. If you're in the area this summer, check it out:
Heat Island:: Smack Mellon
Brooklyn, New York.
June 18 - July 31
Opening: Saturday, June 18, 5-8pm
Rena Leinberger. Plan, 2011
Bia Gayotto: In a Strange Land
posted June 4, 2011 in events, residents
Place/No Place by Chiara Galimberti
Resident Bia Gayotto's video "Trading Places: Los Angeles" is included in In a Strange Land, a group exhibition organized by AREA Chicago at Calles Y Sueños. The shows opens tonight, June 4th, and there will be a weekly series of events in conjunction with the show.
June 4 - July 4
Calles Y Sueños
1900 S Carpenter
Opening event: Saturday, June 4, 7-11 PM
Closing event: A counter-nationalist cook-out, party and speak-out – Sunday, July 3, 5-11 PM
Dana Clancy: Points of View
posted November 9, 2010 in events, residents
Dana is also showing paintings in Behind the Image, a traveling group show curated by James Hull with Marc Mitchell, Director of Georgia Southern University Gallery. It is currently on view in Savannah, Georgia, through November 30th: http://calendar.georgiasouthern.edu/event?id=12303.
Anna Mayer: Fireful of Fear
posted October 2, 2010 in news, residents | tags: anna mayer, residents
Anna Mayer's 2008 project, Fireful of Fear, recenlty marked its 2nd anniversary in the canyons in and around Malibou, CA. Despite the wildfires of this past year, 12 ceramic pieces remain in the landscape, untouched by flames. Anna completed a residency with threewalls as part of the collaborative, CamLab, in the summer of 2009.
More images of the project can be found at http://firefuloffear.blogspot.com/.
This is What Gives Life to Our Living Culture (Rambla Las Flores), 2008-wildfire-fired ceramic (forthcoming)
20" x 15.5" x 3"
SOLAR FLARE ARKESTRAL MARCHING BAND PROJECT: A March For Sun Ra.
posted September 18, 2010 in events, residents | tags: cauleen smith, residents
On September 11th, Cauleen Smith's Solar Flare Arkestral Marching Band descended on Chinatown square! Our summer resident spent her time here working on producing the event, which involved collaborations with Chicago musicians and high school marching bands. There's a slideshow of images on her blog, and an album and film are in the works. Follow her blog for updates on the project!
Interview with Adia Millett
posted September 11, 2010 in residents | tags: adia millett, interviews
Adia Millett The In Betweens #1
During her residency this summer, Adia Millett created a constantly changing installation. The project was on view at threewalls and acted as the backdrop for a series of photographs. Based in California, Adia Millett works in various media, including film, photography, and installation. More information about her work can be found at www.adiamillett.com.
While at threewalls, you've been working on an installation that changes each week. Can you tell us about that project?
The project that I began at threewalls is one that I will be working on for the next ten months. It’s entitled, The In Betweens. The structure I built at threewalls is being re-built in my studio, here in Oakland where I will continue producing temporary installations inside of an 8’x8’x4’ box. While the installations I build in museums or galleries are usually designed for viewers to enter and interact with, the temporary installations, like these, are primarily constructed for photographing. The images of this series will take a few different forms. In the Spring I will start an on-line photo novel, in which a new image from the series will be added each week. Each image will help to expand an intricate story containing more than 30 characters. There will also be a series of printed triptychs and eventually a book. And my hope is that this project will be the fountainhead for my next film.
Is there anything else you've been working on, or plan to work on during your residency?
While in Chicago, I also built an installation which was the second of a series of three entitled, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, at SAIC. A photograph, documenting the installation will be part of a show there entitled Process in Product, in October.
There’s a strong visual presence in your work that comes both from a saturated palette as well as repeated forms – birds, paper planes, chairs and domestic objects, among other things. Can you tell us more about your use of color and imagery?
I think I’m less concerned with color than I am with light. Directing the viewer’s eye towards a specific place within the frame is most successfully done through the use of shadows and focused light. More importantly the light or lack there of, influences the psychology of an image. My work is always attempting to develop a conversation between the allure of darkness, fragility, innocence, and senescence. I believe that my use of light and imagery help to convey those connections.
Your work has an accessibility to it that I appreciate, and it doesn’t always necessarily reflect a specific place or time. Is having that flexibility to interpretation a primary concern of yours, or has it just naturally emerged?
Thanks! Accessibility is an issue that keeps me up at night. My philosophy is that successful work, figures out a way to be extremely simple yet somehow complex in a way that requires it’s viewers to question their own psyche. When an idea I have for a piece becomes to locatable in any way, I’m likely to change it.
CAROUSEL MICROCINEMA 4.2
posted September 4, 2010 in events, residents | tags: carousel microcinema, cauleen smith
On August 26th, Cauleen Smith hosted a screening of her work as a part of her Carousel Mircocinema series.
All images © Jenny Ramos
Carousel Microcinema 4.2: August 26, 2010
posted August 22, 2010 in events, residents | tags: carousel microcinema, cauleen smith, screenings
If you missed the last screening, stop by on Thursday at 6:30pm!
CAROUSEL MICROCINEMA #4
posted August 15, 2010 in events, residents | tags: carousel microcinema, cauleen smith, kerry james marshall, screenings
On July 31st, threewalls' resident, Cauleen Smith, hosted Carousel Microcinema #4, the most recent in a series of screenings. This screening included Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual by Barbara McCullough, Didn't We Ramble On: Black Marching Bands by Billy Jackson, and The Epic Crossing of an Ife Head by Wura-Natasha Ogunji, as well as a post-screening discussion with Kerry James Marshall. Program notes are available here.
More about Carousel Microcinema events can be found at http://carouselmicrocinema.wordpress.com/
All images © Jenny Ramos
Rena Leinberger: Piles of Sunshine
posted August 7, 2010 in events, residents | tags: photos, rena leinberger, residents
During her tinkertank residency at threewalls, Rena Leinberger has been investigating the intersections of urban ruin, constructed notions of optimism, artifice and progress through stock photography and prefabricated materials. For this one-day culminating exhibition, she will show a reconstructed debris pile made of sandpaper, and documentation from her Optimism Pack, a portable studio fabricated to strategically deploy images and color in the urban landscape.
If you missed it, click below for more images!
CPS THINKTANK with Adia Millett and Cauleen Smith
posted July 23, 2010 in CPS Thinktank, residents | tags: adia millett, cauleen smith, chicago public schools, CPS, residents, thinktank
This week, our summer residents, Adia Millett and Cauleen Smith, have been busy conducting workshops with Chicago Public Schools teachers. The week involves presentations on the work of resident artists, group discussions, as well as projects and studio time. This ongoing exchange between threewalls and CPS results in an annual exhibition of work inspired by the workshops.
Want to see what went on at these workshops? Adia's posted interactive documentation from her workshop here: http://web.me.com/amillett/CPS/Home.html
The group was just getting started when we stopped by Cauleen's workshop. Check out the pictures below for a sampling of what the teaching artists were working on.
An Interview with Pete Schulte
posted July 3, 2010 in residents | tags: not here not there, pete schulte, residents
Iowa City based artist, Pete Schulte, recently completed a residency at threewalls. Pete's past and current work is number of projects, including drawings done in graphite and pastel, installation, and objects. Towards the end of his stay, Pete opened his studio to the public, showing an installation of his own work and "Not Here Not There", a group show he organized within the studio space and back rooms of threewalls. More of his work can be seen at schulteprojects.com.
Having already completed two other residencies this year, the studio seems to be an important part of your work. Can you describe your process in making work?
Drawing is the cornerstone of my practice. It is my daily activity and the point of departure for all of my projects. From there, a variety of activities commence, including sculptural, social, site-conditioned, time-based, and curatorial projects. I don’t privilege any particular media or work from a specific position - theoretical or otherwise. I simply try to move through the world with eyes, heart, and mind open. As experiences and ideas impress themselves upon me they often find tributaries into the work that I make. In so far as the studio is concerned, I’m less interested in the idea of The Studio (writ large), than I am in the idea of collapsing the distance that exists between where the work is made, and where and how it is presented.
I’ve noticed that the studio space also comes into play in your documentation. Shadows cast on drawings are thoughtfully placed, and windowsills become backdrops. How would you describe the role of the time and of the physical space around you in your work?
The conditions of a given site are important to me regardless of whether they are in my studio, a traditional exhibition space, or perhaps something less rigorously defined. In the contemporary artworld, site-specificity has become increasingly, and to my mind, rather narrowly articulated by mere responses to a given set of architectural conditions. While architectural conditions obviously inform one’s response to site, the potential field of inquiry is vastly larger. It seems far more interesting to me when artists working in this realm expand their line of inquiry to include the potential psychological, historical, political, social, and/or spiritual implications involved in working with a particular site.
Can one frame a space and time the way one traditionally frames a drawing? On some level it’s a very simple question, but it has continued to fuel my exploration and practice. My studio has generally been the arena where this process unfolds. On a practical level, treating the space and time as the work helps me to keep anything and everything in play and worthy of consideration - be it the drawings, a sculpture, a windowpane, a pile of records, a stone given by my daughter, etc.
What have you been working on during your stay at threewalls?
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about a book called The Drop Edge Of Yonder, by Rudolph Wurlitzer. At the beginning of the novel, the main character is cursed to live between life and death, not being able to discern the difference between the two. Not Here Not There is the name of the character that places the curse, and it is also the name that I’ve adopted for the installation at threewalls. Between leaving my home and losing someone very dear to me, I’ve been struggling with an inevitable sense of drift; questioning where I am, reflecting on what’s been lost, at what cost, taking one-step, then another, and, invariably, trying to move a little further up the road. An obvious metaphor for life is also a reality that’s being compressed into a very short period of time for me. While I may not have been completely conscious of it while making the work, this sense of drift, loss, reflection, and uncertainty seems to be coursing through everything that I’ve done over the last few months - sometimes more apparent, sometimes less.
Pete Schulte : Not Here Not There
posted June 19, 2010 in events, residents | tags: not here not there, openings, pete schulte
Resident artist, Pete Schulte, exhibited an installation of his work as well as a group show, Not Here Not There, in the residency space and back rooms of threewalls on June 4th. Curated by Pete Schulte, the group show included the work of Mariah Dekkenga, Julia Schwadron, John Englebrecht, Sophia Toal-Schulte, John Dilg, Josh Anderson, David Dunlap, Stacie Wilson, Noel Allen, and Claire Pentecost’s Debris.
Anna Mayer: THE PEOPLE CONCERNED
posted May 8, 2010 in events, news, residents | tags: anna mayer, openings, residents
If you're in LA, be sure to check out Anna Mayer's show, The People Concerned. Anna completed a threewalls residency last summer as part of her ongoing collaborative, CamLab. More information about the show is below.
THE PEOPLE CONCERNED
Anna Mayer
4755 York Blvd Los Angeles CA 90042
May 8 - 30, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 8, 7-10 pm
Closing Event: to be held at Tree and Space, Sunday, May 30 from 4-7 pm
For her solo exhibition, The People Concerned, Anna Mayer will present numerous works made for the gallery space as well as performance documents from events and moments occurring in the weeks leading up to the show. All works emanate from Mayer’s attempt to establish an “outcantatory” practice that uses language, fire, and intention to propose relationships encouraging embodiment and the rejection of discreet, linear modes of reception. Wavering between collectivity and introspection, the exhibition offers different access points for experiential discovery. The works included articulate a functional, insistently generative process taking place between people, elements, and hands touching objects.
Resident Update: Jemima Wyman
posted March 20, 2010 in news, residents
Jemima Wyman, one of our summer 2009 residents, has two shows coming up for any threewalls fans that find themselves in Australia this spring. Her solo exhibition at Milani Gallery will include new pour paintings, photo-collages and video works.
Jemima also will have work included in the 17th Biennale of Sydney, curated by David Elliott.
"The Will to Deceive"
March 25th - April 10th
Opening March 25th 6-8pm
Milani Gallery
54 Logan Rd
Woolloongabba, Qld 4102
www.milanigallery.com.au
WINNIPEG BABYSITTER at the Nightingale
posted October 9, 2009 in events, residents
Winnipeg Babysitter
by Daniel Barrow
Saturday, October 17th at 8:00 pm, $10
The Nightingale
1084 N. Milwaukee Chicago, IL 60642
In 2004, Daniel Barrow was threewalls' first Resident Artist. He's back in Chicago and will be showing Winnipeg Babysitter at The Nightingale next Saturday. More information is available here, at the bottom of the page.
STEFANO COSSU: Studio Visit and Interview
posted October 1, 2009 in residents | tags: photos, pinhole photography, residents, stefano cossu, tinkertank
Stefano Cossu is threewalls’ current Tinkertank artist in residence. We caught up with Stefano during his open studio hours and discussed what he‘s been working on while in Chicago. Stefano’s studio is open to visitors on Saturdays from 12-8pm and by appointment, until October 13th.
Tell us about yourself. What were you working on before coming to threewalls? What are your upcoming plans?
My work is currently based on pinhole photography and storytelling. I have created a fictive firm called SoFiET (Science of Fiction Entertainment Technologies), which is like a movie production company, but not quite - its movies are made out of not more than a dozen frames, but it takes much longer to shoot them than a feature film. And the "technological" part is not what one may think.
Recently I have been working on two shows. One is a group show and prize at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, in October, for which I made a series of pinhole monotypes, printed with pigment, resin and gelatin on paper.
Another show is planned to be next year at the Museum of Photographic History in Krakow, through the Italian Cultural Institute.
And I am loving Chicago. I would like to come back soon (but late enough to let the winter pass).
Summer Dance & Eleven7
posted August 26, 2009 in residents
Gitte's research in Chicago has included going to "Summer Dance".
... and filming a sign in her street for eight hours.
The stills are from films she is in the process of editing.
Jemima Wyman: The Declaration of Resemblance and Fluid Insurgents
posted August 26, 2009 in residents | tags: Jemima Wyman, openings, residents
Jemima Wyman is already back in Brisbane preparing for her exhibition, The Declaration of Resemblance and Fluid Insurgents, which will be opening at the Institute of Modern Art this Saturday from 5 -7pm. If you find yourself in Australia this weekend, check it out! More information can be found at www.ima.org.au.
Gitte's International Chicago Soups
posted August 18, 2009 in residents
After serving the soups at Hyde Park Art Center, Gitte will be making them one last time before she leaves Chicago. The last chance to taste them will be at InCUBATE on the 23rd of August.
Soups at 12pm and Talk at 1pm
InCUBATE
The Orientation Center
2129 North Rockwell
http://incubate-chicago.org/
Walking Through Walls: Summer Symposium - Panel Discussion
posted August 17, 2009 in events, residents | tags: performance, summer symposium
Moderated by Peter Taub, the afternoon began with a series of presentations from a panel of arts professionals, who discussed the influence of performance art on the developments of the alternative art movement and studio practices.
Citing various artworks and arts institutions, Jenni Sorkin highlighted the connections between performance, alternative venues, and women in the arts. Women have had a strong role in the development of not-for-profit galleries and publications, fueling alternative modes of making and exhibiting art.
Both professional artists and educators, Mark Jeffery and Sara Rabinowitz spoke of the influences on and projects within their art practices. Mark Jeffery brought up the idea of seemingly everyday actions as performative, and the play between an individual’s presence online and in real life as a form of dance. Sara Rabinowitz described the influence of collaboration and textile production on her work, seeing both as processes of “incremental building,” imbued with slowness and pleasure. Although operating very different practices, both artists noted the roles of community and performance within their work.
After hearing the presentations, the conversation opened up as a discussion between the panel and attendees. More to come on what followed at the Symposium’s Open Forum with our Summer Residents!
CamLab at Ox-Bow
posted August 15, 2009 in residents
During a week-long residency at Ox-Bow, CamLab extended on its project, Studies for Durational Performances. For this series of photos, we use graphically patterned expanses of fabric 60’ long to map the space between our bodies and various landscapes. www.camlab.info
Suz-ercising FOR REAL on lakefront 8/30/09
posted August 14, 2009 in residents | tags: performance, Susan Lee-Chun, The Suz
BELIEVE IT! Come see it FOR REAL on August 30th
A certified Suz-ercise crew will be working out live on Chicago's lakefront. On site will also be our faux real certified marketing associate from the Chicago branch.
Find out where we are on 8/30/09 by following our path on twitter: http://twitter.com/WeAreTheSuz -or- become a fan of The Suz on Facebook and track us through our posts and status updates.
More information and details will follow. We hope to see you on August 30th.
SPECIAL OFFER for Threewalls blog readers: Tell the marketing associate "I'm ready to start Suz-ercising now" and receive a free gift courtesy of The Suz. This offer is valid for only 8/30/09 or until supplies last.
CamLab at BEN RUSSELL
posted August 7, 2009 in residents | tags: Ben Russell, CamLab, performance, photos, video
CamLab performed at the opening reception of BEN RUSSELL : BURNS this past Sunday evening. A few of us from threewalls attended the performance, which was staged in front of the gallery, allowing both visitors and passers-by to watch from the sidewalk. Connected by long sheet of green striped fabric, one performer stayed inside the gallery at a window while the other moved outside. The two spoke to each other about physical space and architecture through personal antecdotes and quoted texts.
Along with their performance, CamLab installed a social sculpture for the show. Stretching across most of the gallery’s backyard, the sculpture is sewn of articles of clothing and hangs at shoulder level. Visitors mingled neck-up through collars, waistbands, sleeves, and other natural openings within the stratum of black fabric.
KH + KH dance to Elvis, Aug 3
posted August 7, 2009 in residents | tags: kang-hyun kanghyuni
KH + KH biking on the Lake Shore Trail, Aug 1
posted August 6, 2009 in residents
"Check Out Spoonerism" is available for check-out
posted August 6, 2009 in residents
CamLab used hand-drawn fabric to create a suit that is available for gallery visitors to take out of the gallery for up to three days at a time in order to perform with it. When not in use, the suit hangs on the wall at ThreeWalls, acting as a kind of 3-d drawing. Each participant agrees to document their performance with a photo, which will then be added to the collection of images posted near the costume. The suit will be available for check-out until August 15. Please join us!!
photo: Rachel Wakeman's documentation of her "Check Out Spoonersim" experience
Inside Outside
posted August 5, 2009 in residents
When it rains, Kang-hyun has to tie Kanghyuni's limbs around her body and run. Fingers crossed for beautiful weather till they accomplish the rest of journey - which is nearly 200 CTA routes. :-)
photo: July 30 - bus X20 // at the Blue Line train station, getting ready to ride out the raindrops.
Kang-hyun and Kanghyuni's Chicago Tour
posted August 3, 2009 in residents
Kang-hyun and Kanghyuni are strolling around town. They are taking buses and the El train everyday, sometimes joining Summer Dance events.
photo: Kanghyuni seems much happier during the brief moments in between buildings on Milwuakee Ave when the sun comes through. July 29th - Bus 56.
"Gitte's International Chicago Soups"
posted August 2, 2009 in residents
On Wednesday the 5th of August there will be another chance to taste "Gitte's International Chicago Soups" at Hyde Park Art Center between 12.30 and 2.30pm. Please ask for the location of the event at the reception.
CPS Thinktank Workshop with CamLab
posted July 28, 2009 in CPS Thinktank, residents | tags: CamLab., chicago public schools, CPS, residents
Continuing with the second week of the Thinktank workshops, CamLab inspired a group of teachers from CPS to create unique pieces that transform and attach to the body. They constructed the costumes using diverse materials: black bags, red and black duct tape, red plastic glasses, cord, leggings, etc.
CamLab performs in Japan
posted July 27, 2009 in residents
Just prior to the start of their threewalls residency, CamLab performed with the Black Eyed Peas at the MTV Music Awards Japan 2009.
CamLab at Ben Russell
posted July 27, 2009 in residents | tags: CamLab
BEN RUSSELL presents
CAMLAB (ANNA MAYER & JEMIMA WYMAN)
DIANA GUERRERO-MACIA
MATT HANNER
SEMICONDUCTOR (RUTH JARMAN & JOE GERHARDT)
1716 S Morgan #2F
Chicago, IL 60608
August 2 to August 30, 2009
Opening reception: 6-10 pm, August 2, 2009
Private viewings by appointment*
-----
ABOUT THE SHOW:
In remembrance of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Harrowing Pepsi Shoot of 1984, the Tragic Heat Wave of 1995, and that August '09 sweat on your Midwest brow; in honor of the public swimming pool around the corner, the names of various Midwestern sports teams, the ice cream truck that is actually probably not a drug front, and the sweet rattle of window-mounted air-conditioning units; in praise of art and summertime and the rapid rise in regional mercury, BEN RUSSELL presents its third show in just as many months - BEN RUSSELL : BURNS
Following (hot) on the heels of last month's (smoking) success, an opening that was made complete with the romance of a simulated Mars-Moon eclipse in the cop-infested alleyway (via artists Roxanne Hopper and Julie Rudder), this month's scorcher features two artists and two artist duos of international persuasion. Break your sunglasses, skip the tanning salon, throw that 60SPF sunscreen in the trash and let the BURNS at BEN RUSSELL char to a crisp your inner and outer cultural selves. From the language-branded cowflesh of Chicagoan Diana Guerrero-Macía to the glow-in-the-dark smokebomb abstractions of Matt Hanner, from UK team Semiconductor's sun-flared NASA video grit to the campfire-replacement sculpture and damsel-in-distress performance of CamLab, BEN RUSSELL : BURNS will demonstrate unequivocally that, at least in Pilsen, the heat is on.
In keeping with the by-now time-honored BEN RUSSELL custom, opening-night attendees are invited to feel the (afore-mentioned) heat of the barbecue and bask in the chill of mild inebriation, while supplies last.
BEN RUSSELL is a newly formed art space in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Co-curated by artists Brandon Alvendia and Ben Russell and situated around the front two rooms in the apartment of its namesake, BEN RUSSELL began presenting a series of month-long 5-person shows on Memorial Day Weekend in the year 2009. Participating artists are invited to produce and exhibit work that is in accordance with the title/theme of each show, the name of which will be derived entirely from the 10 letters in the words "ben russell." Future shows may include BEN RUSSELL : BLUENESS, BEN RUSSELL : REBELS, and BEN RUSSELL : BEER. In keeping with the structural conceits of the French Oulipo language group and the spatial and material limits of what is effectively a rented apartment, BEN RUSSELL maintains a set of restrictions for all exhibiting artists by which:
- One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work scaled at a minimum of three quarters of the thirteen by ten foot wall
- One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work at a maximum of one half of the opposing wall space between the two adjacent doors
- One artist shall produce a time-based work to be presented via a CRT flat screen monitor (and associated components) with Dolby 5.1 audio in the adjacent screening room
- One artist shall produce work to be installed in the all-weather sculpture garden
- One artist shall produce work to be performed for the duration of 15-30 minutes during the opening
BEN RUSSELL features a rotating roster of Chicago-based and non-Chicago-based artists and will be open for viewings one night a month and by appointment, as needed.
CPS Thinktank Workshop with Kang-Hyun Ahn
posted July 23, 2009 in CPS Thinktank, residents | tags: chicago public schools, CPS, kaleidoscope, Kang-Hyun Ahn., residents
In the second week of the Thinktank workshops, resident Artist Kang-Hyun Ahn supervised the CPS Teaching Artists in the construction of a Kaleidoscope. After completion, the viewer looks in one end and light enters the other end, reflecting off interior mirrors. The CPS group made their Kaleidoscopes with colorful, patterned cardboards. The Kaleidoscope is related to hyperbolic geometry. It was initially intended as a science tool, but was quickly copied as a toy.
CPS Thinktank Workshop with Gitte Bog
posted July 23, 2009 in CPS Thinktank, residents | tags: chicago public schools, CPS, Gitte Bog, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, residents, vegetables.
This summer, each resident artist is leading a thinktank workshop with a group of CPS Teaching Artists. The first workshop was lead by Gitte Bog. At the workshop, the Teaching Artists used vegetables to create a portrait inspired by the paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and then made a tasty soup. Below is slideshow of the process.
CPS Thinktank Workshop with Susan Lee-Chun
posted July 22, 2009 in CPS Thinktank, residents | tags: chicago public schools, CPS, residents, Susan Lee-Chun.
Susan Lee-Chun led this summer's second CPS Thinktank Workshop at threewalls. After a presentation of her work, Susan and the Teaching Artists discussed performative acts, costume, and identity.
"No Other One Is" Opening
posted July 15, 2009 in events, residents
Our Summer Residents‘ work is currently on view in the gallery. The opening of “No Other One Is” included performances by Susan Lee-Chun and Kang-hyun Ahn. Visitors tasted samples of Gitte Bog’s “International Chicago Soups” and entered a raffle to participate in a Suz-ercise event to be held at Chicago’s lakefront later this summer. Visitors also signed up to engage with Camlab’s “Check Out Spoonerism,” a costume that can be checked-out on loan. Videos, installations, and ephemera from the opening night’s performances can be seen in the gallery now through August 15th.
Studio Visit with Susan Lee-Chun
posted July 8, 2009 in residents | tags: Susan Lee-Chun
Susan’s been busy making props, costumes, and building her installation for her upcoming performance during the opening of “No Other One Is”. Her studio is full of dodecahedron-shaped barbells and futuristic work-out clothes made of vinyl leather and black and gold spandex. She’s going to be working on some new Suz-ercise attire for a performance later this summer on Chicago’s Lakefront.
Studio Visit with Gitte Bog
posted July 8, 2009 in residents | tags: gitte bog, photos, residents
We caught up with Gitte at the Hyde Park Art Center while she was gathering information for her latest project. Gitte's been asking participants around the city to guess ingredients that they'd expect to find in soups from different countries. Gitte will be using the answers she's been collecting to make her own soups, which she'll be serving at the opening of "No Other One Is" at threewalls on July 10th.
Summer Residents Are Here!
posted July 1, 2009 in events, residents | tags: exhibition, residents
Working in studios located in Hyde Park, Bridgeport, and the West Loop, our Summer Residents have been busy preparing for their upcoming exhibition. Check the calendar for show details ››