OMG TGIF MDW sifc btw etc

Sixty Inches From Center did a feature on Exquisite Corpse’s closing reception. Thanks, Lindsey Anderson! (Check out the press page for more… press.)

It’s yet another beautiful fall day, and thus a perfect start to a big weekend for art; the annual Bridgeport Art Walk begins this evening at 6pm and runs through Sunday:

One of the walk’s stops is the buzzed-about MDW Fair, which showcases over 50 exhibitors comprised of artist-run spaces, small not-for-profits, emerging galleries, collectives, and independent curators. Founded in the Spring, the fair is currently in its second iteration and is not to be missed; this, folks, is the future—and the pure now—of Chicago art. This is the rise of the alternative and underground. I like what Paul Klein had to say about it: “MDW sets a high bar about what an art fair should be—an art experience where the exhibitors present art they believe in to an audience that wants to be welcomed, inspired, challenged, and cajoled.” (Edit: Paul just added a paragraph on Occupy Wall Street, and it’s worthy of a standing ovation.) MDW’s Vernissage is tonight 8–11pm, and continues Saturday and Sunday 12–6pm.

Of course, you can’t mention “Bridgeport” and “art” without including the Zhou B Art Center; in the heart of it all, the art center comprises 5 floors of open artist studios and galleries. At 4Art Gallery, you can view Spiritus Saltus and Opposition from Exquisite Corpse. Visit tonight 6–10pm (there will be cider!), and/or Saturday 12–6pm and Sunday 12–5pm. Admission is free.

Here’s a map of the art walk. (Some distances more walkable than others…) (Which is why it might be perfectly acceptable to just stroll around 4Art with a mug of cider in hand.) (Just sayin’.)

Only connect

Remember that Exquisite Corpse guest who “approached me and made my night by raving about the performance, telling me how much it moved him—that he had a moment in which he realized he got it—and showing me, literally, pages he’d written as a response to the piece”? Remember when I didn’t have to resort to quoting myself when I’m already linking to said quote? That guest is Danny Bravman, and he [finally!] emailed me a few days ago. Here’s his message in full:

Hi, I'm not sure if you remember me. I was at the closing night of
Exquisite Corpse, and had been so moved by Caitlin's performance
piece, that I wrote a few pages of reactions which you said you'd be
interested in reading. I had some computer issues and, honestly,
forgot about it, but if you're still interested, here they are.  Other
than blanking a few names, I've not edited it at all; sorry if it's
hard to follow in some places.  It's a little detached for me to read
back on this a month later, I'll admit.

---
One girl painted another girl in red. The second girl rolled onto
placed paper. Repeat. I was confused, because the second girl was
the performer, yet it appeared like the first was the artist: the
first painting, while the second the brush she used. And then I
realized it- the point of the piece, the point of the whole exhibit,
the emotion of tonight, the meaning of the past few months, the answer
we’ve been seeking- collaboration. They are not alone. They work
together. They complement. What they create is greater than the
individual.

Eventually they exhaust the red, and there is blue now, and the result
is purple, so perfect thematically. The first girl has paint on her;
the second has patches of skin still visible. They have been talking
occasionally to each other, inaudibly behind the music and the crowd,
who at one point break into to interact with, calling for the second,
who had adhered to the paper and plastic she was rolling across to
“leave it”. And she lets herself roll herself up, cocooning herself
within her own art, then emerges, and lets the next coat be applied.
She is near naked, but yet not erotically: her exposure is not of
shame, but of sharing; playful. At the end they both procure
scissors- I do not know why- and cut up their work into scraps, not
into clothing as I first hypothesized.

I text back the location I originally was going to spitefully not give
K____, having been upset at the insultingly little effort put into
this purported friendship, this constant standing up, so badly lied,
the sort which had me write off another ______ _U 20__ graduate, to
let be given what I ought show to such behavior, contrasting with the
appreciation I show, the appreciation shown to me by J__ mere minutes
before, who was so touched at my friendship in traveling to Wisconsin
for her birthday, for her show, for her, that I realized how
unnecessarily bitter I’d been, by being alone, wandering through this
exhibit, taking a “Fish of Destiny” while leaving a crumpled up
“LIES”, drawing a half-visible off-to-the-side mist-shrouded head for
a trifold self-portrait, sending an unacknowledged text instead of
congratulating in person the sole artist I knew beforehand, silently
composing hurtful hates. But I feel I understand. Now I know. I see
collaboration before me. The second girl writes, her performance
concluded, on the external easels two questions: how is the body best
used for art, and vice versa. I look around, finding these papers and
pen, to take outside to write down reactions.

I understand her art. I understand their art. I understand myself.
We are not alone. We express ourselves, together, creating and
observing, together interpreting. And I hope my crumpled up paper is
still there, so that I can straighten out the scrap, cross out the
black word and write under in purple: “I understand now”. Let’s see.

Thank you so much, Danny, for reminding us why we make art in the first place. (Well, why a lot of us do, anyway.)

If you haven’t already, make sure you take part in last week’s discussion post! I also posed the same questions in the Chicago art discussion-based #chiart group on Facebook. Screencap of group members’ answers after the jump. The names and profile pictures have been redacted because, well, what happens in #chiart stays in #chiart:

More like Damien Worst amirite amirite

Who, in your opinion, is the most overrated contemporary artist? Whom do you absolutely hate? Do any particular pieces from that artist come to mind?

I swear I’m going somewhere with this! (Hint: Two tags.)

Roundup

Exquisite Corpse updates: shiny new menu page for the show (click on the thumbnails), more performance photos on Flickr, a new video clip of said performance, and new images at the exhibition photos page.

Photo by Andrew Roddewig, 2011.

Check out the updated virtual gallery, the new electronic abode of Spiritus Saltus—the exquisite corpse by Melbourne artists Adriane Strampp, Irene Wellm, and Kirsten Perry spotlighted in posts 1 2 and 3—and Opposition by Boston artist Gideon Ansell and Amsterdam artist Mark Pol. I will be writing more about these two works, so stay tuned. In the meantime, feel free to ask me any questions you may have about them.

You can also view Spiritus Saltus and Opposition in person at 4Art Gallery, located in the internationally renowned Zhou B Art Center. The next monthly 3^rd Friday opening reception is October 21, 6–10pm, and the annual Bridgeport Art Walk is Friday, October 21, 6–10pm; Saturday, October 22, 12–6pm; and Sunday, October 23, 12–6pm. 4Art’s regular gallery hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–6pm.

And, completely unrelated to any of the above, it’s been a while since my last Sixty Inches From Center contribution, but my art scene documentarian self has risen from the ashes. Risen sixty inches from the ground.*

--

*my height†

†unfortunately

The body as art / Art as the body // Photos galore

Photos of Caitlin Bergh’s Exquisite Corpse performance piece are now up on Flickr. (You can find more photo links in the previous post.)

Photo by Andrew Roddewig, 2011.

Here’s a short video clip of the performance, taken on an outdated point-and-shoot camera, and here are lengthier videos taken on Caitlin’s iPhone. (As you can probably tell by the quality and equipment used, documentation was merely and mostly for posterity’s sake. Indie indeed.) I like how you can hear me say, “Do one more roll,” at 2:33 in the last video. Because that one roll resulted in 2:42. Which was a perfectly unintentional and unintentionally perfect moment. [29 October edit: Caitlin accidentally deleted all of her YouTube videos. Stay tuned, as she’ll re-upload them soon!]

Those who watched the performance in person are right, however, when they tell me that the videos don’t do the experience justice; you really did have to be there. But, as has been mentioned, there will be more [and bigger! and better!] live collaborations between Caitlin and me in the future.

Not seen in the videos is the ending of the performance: We bowed. My obsession from the soundtrack blared. And the audience responded to Caitlin’s questions, “What is the best way to convey the body in art?” and “What is the best way to convey art on the body?”

Of course, the performance was only one small part of Exquisite Corpse. Photos of the exhibition are now up, arranged roughly in the order in which a guest to the gallery might view each collaboration. Keep checking the page for photos of the opening and closing receptions.

Unrelated to the show, the discussion is still going in the “Art as political weapon, artist as social instigator” post from June! If you’re new to the site or haven’t been checking back on the older discussion posts, join in on the conversation!

Hear, hear. Here.

Photo by Andrew Roddewig, 2011.

This is a look of love and trust. Love between first-time performance artists whose one “rehearsal” consisted of merely talking through what might happen in the actual performance. Trust to not get paint up the nose.

Photo by Andrew Roddewig, 2011.

Thanks to Andrew Roddewig for taking photos of Caitlin Bergh’s Exquisite Corpse performance and posting a slideshow on Sixty Inches From Center. If you have a Facebook account, you can view many more—90 total, including outtakes not seen in the SIFC article—in albums here and here.

Thanks also to Dubi Kaufmann—view his photos on Flickr.

The next post will include videos [and even more photos!] of the performance.

Here, I’ve created a new page for write-ups in the press, including such pieces as Paul Klein’s preview / review of the exhibition and my interview on Gapers Block.

I’ve also created a new page for the virtual gallery here. It’s still under construction, but for now, you can check out Spiritus Saltus (which I profiled in these three posts) and Opposition (shown here). I’ll be spotlighting the artworks in future posts as well.

I have been following Caitlin’s budding comedy career since Day 1 (all of six months ago… but hey, the short amount of time makes her progress all the more impressive), ever since she told me she decided to take a stand-up class taught by Cameron Esposito (whom Caitlin eventually opened for as her first “real” comedy gig). She’s already come a long way yet, in her words, you’ve only seen the “tip of the iceberg(h).” Comedy Cares presents: A Benefit for The Broadway Youth Center is tonight at 8pm.

-math? Aftermath.

“I just peed acrylic paint.” –Performance artist Caitlin, to me.

Saturday night was pure magic. Infinite thanks to: all the artists, all who attended the show, Joe LaNasa for letting me have free reign over the Fulton Street Collective exhibition space, and you. If you took any photos at the closing reception for Exquisite Corpse, please email them to artists.on.the.lam {at} gmail {dot} com.

The highlight of the closing was Caitlin’s performance piece:

Towards the end of the reception, a guest approached me and made my night by raving about the performance, telling me how much it moved him—that he had a moment in which he realized he got it—and showing me, literally, pages he’d written as a response to the piece. (I told him to type up the written reaction and to email it to me, so if you, good sir, are reading this, please do!) That’s all I need, knowing that art had a profound and even transcendent effect on someone. Well, that, and I need to get rid of this paint still encrusted under and around my fingernails.

Here’s a link to Caitlin’s artist statement. I’ll post videos and more photos soon, so keep checking back.

And here’s the performance soundtrack listing:

            I’m Not Done – Fever Ray

            Beat and the Pulse – Austra

            Earth Intruders (XXXChange Remix) – Björk

            When I Grow Up (D. Lissvik Remix) – Fever Ray

            Lose It – Austra

You can listen to the songs here. (I’m now addicted to Austra.) To recreate the experience as closely as possible, I’d suggest cranking up your speakers and blasting the music at full volume. And then rolling around on your floor. With possibly toxic materials. In a bikini.

Catch Caitlin this Wednesday at Cole’s weekly Comedy Open Mic, where she’ll most likely do a standup set about this performance. More importantly, she’ll also be doing a set this Friday at Comedy Cares presents: A Benefit for The Broadway Youth Center. Laugh for a great cause!

It was our first time collaborating on anything like this, and both of us have caught the body-painting-and-rolling-onto-a-canvas bug. We have so many new ideas reeling around in our minds (Caitlin being birthed out of a tree with me as the midwife? strip clubs where ladies peel their skin off?), and we can’t wait to share them with you. This is just the beginning.

Performance Paint plus Polymath post

Artist Caitlin, while purchasing supplies for her performance piece: “Hi, which of these paints will be safest to apply to my whole body?”

Employee: “None of these are safe.”

Caitlin: “OK, I’ll take this one.”

#sacrificesforart

Exquisite Corpse closes tonight 7–10pm, and the performance piece of a lifetime will begin at 8:15pm. Don’t miss it! This is also your last chance to see the show, in its entirety, in person.

(The pieces seen in this blog’s new header are Cassie Hamrick’s I Am Afraid of Horses. I Am Afraid of Being Bitten. (Hip Hip Hippo) and Veronica Stein’s Abjection. Come and cuddle them / do other things to them. The image in the updated press release, also below, is Pug by Minneapolis kinetic sculptor Asia Ward and Chicago fashion designer KC Winter. It moves.)

And more press! I am loving Gapers Block for using the word “polymath” (possibly due to my affinity for the word “polyglot”). Thank you, Michael Workman, for interviewing me!

For this edition of Briefing Room, we check in with artist, artist agent, writer, and independent curator Jenny Lam. A recent transplant to Chicago from a stint at Columbia University in New York, Lam has embraced her engagement of the Chicago scene with wave-making zeal, landing in the press and in conversations for her work at the Zhou B Art Center, 4Art and, most recently, at the Fulton Street Collective. "Exquisite Corpse," the frenetic exhibit she organized for the Collective, drew notable crowds for its open embrace of artistic collaboration.

Read the rest here.

Luckily no heatstroke-induced corpses at an otherwise exquisite opening

Exquisite Corpse opened Friday night, and it was a great success! I and everyone else I spoke with were amazed at the turnout (it was so crowded that it took me a flip through the signed guestbook afterwards to discover that in attendance were some guests I didn’t even know were there), and that’s not even taking into consideration the almost unbearable heat; outdoors, the mercury rose to 94ºF—really, Chicago? in September?—while indoors, the masses found themselves without air conditioning and with an abundance of track lights. Thank you, everyone, for sweating it out in the name of art!

If you or anyone you know took any photographs, please send them to artists.on.the.lam {at} gmail {dot} com. Proper attribution will be given, as always, if your images are used.

Throughout the night, the comments I received the most related to the show’s energy and the artwork’s diversity. Indeed, because I gave the artists no rules other than to collaborate with one another, emphasizing that there were no limitations in size or medium, the resulting creations spanned everything from delicate graphite illustrations to a kinetic sculpture named “Pug”—with bicycle inner tubes as skin and tufts of real human hair woven throughout its body—that jumps, rolls its eyes, and swings its neck, a toy from hell that requires direct interaction with its viewer. One of the many other pieces that asked for interaction was artist Adrienne Glover’s advice booth. Questions (and pleas) posed to her throughout the night included:

Should I pursue my coworker crush?

What should I do about an unrequited crush?

What should I do with my life? I want to travel.

How do I make an honest living with my idea?

I’m about to graduate. I need advice about getting a job.

I want to make muffins! Help.

Should I stay married?

Should I quit my job?

I want to relocate to a different country. How should I do that?

How do I become a musician?

Should I come out to my parents?

Where should I go out for drinks tonight?

Exquisite Corpse is far from over. The closing reception / party is on Saturday, September 17, 7–10pm. Most exhibition closings, compared to openings, are like Disney’s low-budget direct-to-video sequels in which only a couple of the washed-up D-list voice actors return, desperate for work, and the songs—oh God, the songs—induce more secondhand embarrassment than watching a certain demographic try to dougie. The closing for this show, however, will be to the opening what Return of the King was to Fellowship of the Ring. An example of what you can expect: artist [and budding local comedian] Caitlin Bergh will be doing a performance piece that involves body painting, rolling of the body onto a blank canvas, and destruction of said canvas.

Until then, gallery hours are by appointment, and you may contact me at, again, artists.on.the.lam {at} gmail {dot} com. Most of the artwork is for sale, and all are reasonably priced. I will also be creating a page on this blog with images of the works and their respective prices. Virtual viewing, of course, isn’t the same as seeing the works in person. After all, a few of the pieces do ask gallery goers to uncover, touch, hug, interact with, step inside, write in, take something from, and leave something in them. And your visit won’t nearly be as hot as the opening. Pinky swear.

Extra Extra

Two posts within the same day? What is this…

A couple press mentions for Exquisite Corpse, which opens tonight:

Gapers Block.

Paul Klein’s Art Letter. (The write-up includes photos. Spoiler alert!)

One of the things that I genuinely like about Chicago is that it cares more about what you are doing than what you've done - just look at some of our aldermen. Not that I know anything about what Jenny Lam has done, I'm impressed by what she's doing - creating, finding, following her own path in the Chicago art scene. She's been on my radar since spring. A recent college graduate, she's just curated a charming show at Fulton Street Collective titled Exquisite Corpse. Expanding on the traditional notion where multiple artists work on a single piece without knowing what the other has done, she's solicited, culled, and matched 40 artists who don't know each other to collaborate on creating art. In most cases the pieces are fun, competent, multi-faceted and engaging.

I always enjoy being likened to corrupt Chicago politicians.

Thank you so much!

Showtime

Exquisite Corpse opens tonight! These past few days, strange things were afoot…

But everything came together perfectly.

What’s remarkable about the second image above is that Patricia Biesen, who created the torso, and Lorraine Grandinetti, who did the head and hands, using the artwork of her late brother Frank Grandinetti (come to the show to see the rest of the piece, including Diane Ponder’s bottom section!), did not see each other’s sections until it was time to install. The palette is serendipity at its most—wait for it—exquisite. Beautiful how things really do fall into place.

Punching Crunch time in the face

Exquisite Corpse opens this Friday! Local artists have been dropping off their pieces at the exhibition space, and pieces from across the country and overseas have been signed, sealed, delivered (and could be yours! support starving artists!). And. They. Look. Amazing. Really, you need to see the art in person. Get excited.

As a preview of what you can expect at the show, here’s a striking collaboration by Boston-based artist Gideon Ansell and Amsterdam-based artist Mark Pol:

Image courtesy of Gideon Ansell, 2011.

Installation begins tomorrow. Let’s do this.

Affixed words [for the] media // Mixed media bird [women]

The press release for Exquisite Corpse has been… released. Read up.

Here’s one of two pieces by Amanda Mudrovich and Moca Garcia:

Image courtesy of Amanda Mudrovich, 2011.

Image courtesy of Amanda Mudrovich, 2011.

Thus begins the countdown: less than 10 days until opening night.

“How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”

“A fish.” (Thank you, Carrie McGath.)

More behind-the-scenes previews of Exquisite Corpse artwork (find past sneak peeks here, here, here, and not there but here):

A piece by Robin Rios and Derail Howery:

Image courtesy of Robin Rios, 2011.

Werewolves? Vampires? A post-apocalyptic showdown between Adam and Eve? This is not your mother’s hairdresser’s lover’s dog walker’s dealer’s nanny’s chessboard.

The final version of this piece by Brittany Majka, Carrie McGath, and Jennifer Moore:

Image courtesy of Jennifer Moore, 2011.

I never would’ve expected it to take such a direction, and I love that. See more photos—including other exquisite corpses—and read about the process at Jennifer’s very informative blog, where there are a few NSFW images (although still much classier than the Marilyn Monroe behemoth she, Brittany, and Carrie [rightfully] mock).

A work in progress by Jessica Drogosz, to be added to by Avisheh Mohsenin and Jes Standefer:

Image courtesy of Jessica Drogosz, 2011.

Philadelphia-based artist Becket Flannery (whom I interviewed for my first Sixty Inches From Center article) and New York-based artist Tucker Rae-Grant are organizing their collaborations around the idea of bait and trap, “both in the sense of how painting operates as a trap, how the surface is a kind of bait and the frame is a kind of trap, [and] also the ways in which paintings and art objects can be tactical.”

Diane Ponder, Lorraine Grandinetti working on behalf of the late Frank Grandinetti, and Patricia Biesen are keeping their individual images unknown to each other until the opening reception, where they will unveil their final piece. Similarly, Deirdre Fox, Jessie Winslow, and Zachary Trebellas “would like to maintain the mystery for now.” The images and videos I’ve seen so far from both groups, however, are making it very hard for me to not share them with you (Patricia even stated, “I’ve just created one of the most unique paintings of my entire career for this event”), but fortunately (or unfortunately), I [think I] have willpower.

And Cassie Hamrick and Veronica Stein are working on a series of pillows that will be displayed on couches and chairs they’ve found throughout the exhibition space. Guests will be able to touch and interact with these pieces. Art: it comes in furniture form too.

And that’s not even all the artists.

Basically, this is going to be one hell of a show.

Behind the Curtain + Lifting the Veil

The tables have been turned—I’ve been interviewed by Sixty Inches From Center. Most peculiar. Read the interview here if you dare.

Irene Wellm, Kirsten Perry, and Adriane Strampp have released the following statement regarding their collaboration, Spiritus Saltus, which was revealed several days ago:

Our practice for this piece was to follow the traditional procedure of Exquisite Corpse, where each artist has no idea of what the other artist has done. Each of us found this to be a nervous experience, feeling trepidation and a sense of responsibility towards the other two artists. Yet it was paradoxically a freeing experience to not be completely responsible for the artwork’s outcome! No restrictions other than the registration marks were made, so as to allow for playfulness.

Ultimately the drawing process took over, and without predetermination, it became an enjoyable reprieve from our personal everyday practices.

The unveiling, done with ceremony, was nerve-wracking and exciting. How was this going to come together? Averting our gazes as the work was unwrapped and displayed, finally the moment was there. And what a delight and surprise it was. How strangely the three parts seemed to synch together with some strange kind of instinctual reason. Here was a hybrid creature that embodied a sense of Pan, like some mysterious and playful archetype from Nature.

When you break out of your comfort zone, you break free.

Exquisite Corpse Sneak Peek No. 4

A quick update from the last post: Australian artists Adriane Strampp, Irene Wellm, and Kirsten Perry have unveiled their exquisite corpse!

Image courtesy of Adriane Strampp, 2011.

The moment of unmasking marked the first time all three artists—like the rest of us—saw the finished piece in its entirety. Here are detailed shots of each artist’s segment before the revelation, after the jump:

Fragments and Fawning

Are all my posts from now on going to be divided between previewing Exquisite Corpse and praising Peru? Probably.

No, not really.

OK, one more.

Maybe.

The studio and home of Exquisite Corpse artist Adriane Strampp have just been featured in The Design Files. Take a look and get inspired.

Adriane and fellow Melbourne-based artists Irene Wellm and Kirsten Perry have been collaborating in the traditional exquisite corpse fashion, choosing to not reveal their piece until the very end.

Image courtesy of Adriane Strampp, 2011.

Speaking of tradition, in the last post, I mentioned how Peru embraces a mix of the old and the new. This synthesis, in keeping with the multilingual, multiethnic identity, can be seen and experienced throughout the country, from solar panels on the Uros Islands—man-made islands, made completely of reeds, floating on Lake Titicaca as they have for hundreds of years—to flatscreen monitors at the Museo de Arte de Lima that flip through artists’ sketchbooks; museumgoers can thus view each page without having to handle the original, physical items, which are displayed in adjacent glass cases. And—what were the odds—I stumbled upon an exquisite corpse reference at the museum’s Szyszlo retrospective. Photos after the jump.