SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

Managing grief with art A guide to Chicago Literature Jeremy Deller & Liam Gillick in Tanzania and Kenya Bookstores, theaters, and more invade the MCA O’S A 2AG TIN IC ER Y H ER C NC CO 2 GALL AT ART BIT HA

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Reinventing the SAIC Community

Illustration by Kira Mardikes Guest Lecturer Discusses Institutional and Academic Strength BY KERRIANNE O’MALLEY

In the first of a series of conver- eral aid programs and seen as In addition to administrative not considered by students,” sations about the reinvention second-rate by employers. strength, Dr. Haring-Smith stress- said Ingrid Olson, a senior, of SAIC, Dr. Tori Haring-Smith, “As it affects financial aid, es the importance of a common after the talk. “We experience President of Washington & As- reaccreditation is an issue thread throughout a student’s the effects. That’s why it was sociation of American Colleges for both the students and the education, including experiences very illuminating to see the and Universities (AAC&U) SAGE institution,” said Wyatt Grant, both inside and outside of the school discussed in this way.” (Strategies for Achieving Greater a junior. “But at the same classroom setting. Recognizing Dr. Haring-Smith may not Expectations) consultant, led a time, I think the quality of our that SAIC’s student body has an have provided answers to all discussion with members of the education is the responsibil- affinity for self-direction, she de- of the conflicts and issues SAIC community on October 8. ity of the institution, whether scribes her experience at Brown within the SAIC community, but or not we get accreditation.” University, another strongly she did encourage more open “As the school both adapts to new Accreditation, which must independent university that also discussion and willingness to be renewed every ten years, is operates on a pass-fail system. compromise. She encourages leadership and looks towards its granted to an institution that, “In that very free environ- the entire community to think among other things, has an ac- ment, we needed more than ever about what SAIC could and reaccredition, the self-defi nition of ceptable level of student educa- to direct the students,” said Dr. should be for future genera- tional success and demonstrates Haring-Smith. Without a united tions of students and faculty. SAIC becomes increasingly important.” an effort to improve itself. administration, committed to Future conversations have yet To this end, Dr. Haring-Smith providing its students with a uni- to be announced, but hope- The topics of the discussion was brought in by SAIC staff fied college experience, “what you fully they will contribute to this centered around SAIC’s sense of to use her experience as a fac- do in the classroom is undercut”. atmosphere of openness and a community and the goals of the ulty member, administrator, A second-year SAIC graduate gradual progress. institution, especially the mission and president to facilitate SAIC’s student questioned Dr. Haring- and core values of SAIC. As the growth and improvement. Smith’s emphasis on a unified To participate in this ongo- school both adapts to new leader- To increase the school’s effective- educational experience in the ing conversation, e-mail ship and looks towards its reaccredi- ness, Dr. Haring-Smith recommends discussion. “Within chaos, I see the [email protected]. tation, the self-definition of SAIC creating a consolidated list of its potential for growth,” he said. “To becomes increasingly important. core values. Policies and projec- me, chaos is not to be avoided.” SAIC’s current status as an tions for the future should, she Although a large portion of Dr. accredited school makes its argued, spring from these com- Haring-Smith’s address was directed students better candidates for mon points. The lecture attendees at uniting disparate faculty and financial aid and more competi- each recorded a sentiment they staff, the majority of the respon- tive in the job market. Schools valued at SAIC on note-cards. dents in the Q-and-A were students, that are not accredited are These note-card responses will eager to have their voices heard. often not recognized by fed- soon be available on the web. “SAIC as an institution is often SCHOOL F NEWSMAGAZINE 5

the year of

Forging a community

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JEN MOSIER

When you can’t pour molten new foundry, wasn’t empty for supervisor, coordinated with Far from towering skyscrap- iron alone. Everyone leaves iron in downtown Chicago, long. Immediately, students Karly to create what they hope ers in the rural landscape west of with a shared experience. SAIC still finds a way to call suited up in safety gear and to be an annual event. Carolyn, Chicago, flames and sparks flew That allure brings experienced this “The Year of Iron.” unpacked equipment for the pour. along with Gabriel Akagawa, freely from the furnaces. Students students back for more, as it Karly Spell, co-owner of Art “This event has been a great Assistant Adjunct Professor, and and faculty say their road trip to has for 20 years under Carolyn’s Casting of Illinois, Inc., opened opportunity for students to foundry manager Dan Matheson, create artwork ignited excitement direction. Spring 2010 will mark up her bronze-casting foundry to visit the foundry and understand gave students the opportunity in the craft. Currently SAIC offers that two-decade anniversary of host an iron pour. Students ignit- about the process,” she said. to learn about iron. Stressing the bronze and aluminum casting, so Carolyn’s annual iron pour at ed three cupola furnaces to melt With sledgehammers in hand, need for safety as iron chunks if you want cast iron, plan on leav- Crabtree Farm, where schools cast iron on the original site of the students broke up recycled flew through the air, Gabriel ing the confines of the city limits. from the area including Grand Val- old foundry in Oregon, Illinois. heating furnaces, sinks, radiators showed students how to break The iron casting process is ley State University will join SAIC “After the fire, it’s excit- and bathtubs. Students shaped up the masses of metal. Dan labor intensive. And the payoff in the art of casting metal. It’s a ing to see this empty lot be- sand molds and melted the oversaw students as they set is that you become part of a celebration that marks the transi- ing used, “ Karly said. recycled iron into those molds. up the furnaces that would later community through the pro- tion of pouring industrial metal The lot, located next to the Carolyn Ottmers, SAIC foundry melt those pieces of metal. cess. Nobody can pour molten into what it has become: art.

Even with only 7% admitted, SAIC graduate enrollment is still at its Unless you were in Peru in October, you missed it, but you can still highest ever, making the future of this list of accomplishments look catch Shannon Benine’s “Means Without End,” a photography piece quite fruitful...rumor has it that the school has put dorm kids with visually examining how American families deal with a loved one’s loss the fl u in a certain high class hotel, but don’t worry, health services in Iraq and Afganistan... Even darker is Stephanie Brooks’ “Because is organizing fl u vaccinations for students... does anyone know the Night,” a show of 16 artists whose work evokes sensations that

BY RITA DeANGELOBY RITA what that random building being built within the Michigan Building happen only “because the night.”... Bright news for Anne Harris is for?... as for personal accomplishments, Edmund Sandoval has whose piece was selected from 3,300 to be part of the Smithsonian been busy with two stories (“Meat and Blade” in Thieves Jargon and National Portrait Gallery’s “Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition “Kimchi” in Dogzplot Flash Fiction Anthology 2009 Edition) soon to 2009” show, and Peter Exley’s architecture fi rm, architectureisfun, is be released... Judith Valente (MFAW 2001) published a full-length featured in the new book, “Details in Architecture, Creative Detailing collection of poems, “Discovering Moons” (Virtual Artists Collective, by Leading Architects.”... Meanwhile, Sarah Ross is investigating 2009)... Future reading: Art Education professors Quinn and Ploof, 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities along with former colleague Lisa Hochtritt, will produce a volume around the world in “Actions: What You Can Do With The City.”... about art education as social justice work scheduled for publication Jerry Bleem’s inspired by the various ways the war in Iraq has been in 2011. And if you’re sick of reading for yourself, don’t miss the reported in his exhibition, “Allegiance,” and Eduardo Kac’s piece, next Quickies! reading series by Mary Hamilton (MFAW 2007) and “Genesis,” is on its 38th showing world-wide, this time in France... Lindsay Hunter (MFAW 2007) on Nov. 10... Nancy Feldman was at Slightly closer is Tony Phillips’ piece, “The Weather Channel,” at the the Lima Film Fest for the screening of “El Pueblo Shipibo: Men of Islip Art Museum in Long Island, and even closer is Jason Lazarus’ the Montana,” a silent fi lm using anthropological footage from 1952... photography piece at the Art Institute – no excuse to miss that one...go! SCHOOL NEWS TICKER READING & WRITING F NEWSMAGAZINE 7

PUPPETRY WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE Theatre ZARKO unleashes it’s premiere season

BY EMILE FERRIS

The puppet by very nature is a tough war,” says Montenegro, “and that towards opposite ends.” customer, a perpetrator, an instigator perhaps their only voice becomes In the fi nal and possibly most and a mocker. A liminal non-human the nightmares of the perpetrators.” haunting movement of “The Sublime status makes it a natural affront to the In “Sublime” it is this dark world of Beauty of Hands,” Montenegro established order. Perhaps this is why bad dreams that shrouds both victim speaks to the effort to replace shat- puppetry has so often found itself and assailant. tered limbs with prosthetics. relegated to the outer strata of the As the performance initiates, “I quietly mock the hubris of human theatrical universe. masked female actors speak lines of beings attempting to replace a hand poetry their identities obscured as if with a mechanical device.” Although in a painting by Magritte, their sinu- he says that he accepts that this is “I quietly mock the hubris of human beings attempting to ous hands moving like magnifi cent, well-intentioned, he grieves “the lack vulnerable birds. of struggle to prevent the loss of those replace a hand with a mechanical device.” “Hands are at the center of creativ- things that are irreplaceable.” ity...” said Montenegro, “exquisitely Although Theatre Zarko’s come- Yet, as evidenced by the growing pop- beautiful in their ability to express dic second act, “Klown Kantos,” ularity and renown of such groups everything that takes part within the comprised of a series of stand alone as Red Moon Theater, puppetry may heart.” The human hand in this produc- puppetry performances, is whimsi- be on the ascent. In step with such tion is emblematic of both creativity cal and engaging, it is not without a renaissance, Evanston’s fl edgling and cruelty, as well as the complexity social commentary. Theatre Zarko challenges any as- that results when these two uniquely Despite the fact that “Meat,” an en- sumptions regarding the marginality human attributes combine. tirely puppet-acted piece, is set in a of puppetry. Hence in “Sublime Beauty” a butcher shop and is comical, it could “I dreamed that my sister found toy-maker designs explosives and easily be understood as promotional a toy in the grass and brought it to employing Montenegro’s stark and of vegetarianism. me. I played with it for a while until resonant choreography -the inevi- In another piece in the second a cloud blackened out the sun. My table horror is realized in the loss of act entitled “Calvin” Montenegro hands turned into birds and fl ew into a child’s hands. displays remarkable ability as he a tree...” In a post-performance discussion, performs with a headless twin pup- So begins Theatre Zarko’s premiere troupe-members Jason Tucker and pet that is attached to his body. Ac- production, “The Sublime Beauty of Laura Montenegro decried the hei- cording to the puppeteer, this piece Hands,” which confronts the devasta- nous practice of making land mines illustrates the “trials and tribulations tion caused by land mines while also that “are bright yellow and look of dealing with other people.” exploring the dualistic nature of the attractive like toys.” Michael Montenegro’s genius is human creativity from which such Sites such as Unicef’s “Impact of not simply in his ability to organize horrors originate. Armed Confl ict on Children” sub- his troupe or conceive an impressive Puppeteer Michael Montenegro stantiate the performers’ claims and production or craft and perform his cites as his impetus for making reveal startling fi gures. Since May puppets. His genius is squarely cen- “Sublime,” an eight year “milieu of 1995 children have made up about tered in his employment of the inher- constant war.” Denied any visual half the victims of the 50,000 - 100,000 ent symbolism of puppetry in order documentation of the terrors in Iraq anti-personal mines laid in Rwanda. to examine diffi cult issues. When and Afghanistan, and aware that our Naturally curious, children are likely Montenegro is asked to call to mind a soldiers were coming back deeply to pick up strange objects, such historic example of puppetry’s social traumatized, Montenegro found him- as the infamous toy-like ‘butterfl y’ relevance, he says, “in the old circus, self preoccupied by dream images. mines that Soviet forces spread by a clown would race terrifi ed around In response he created a symbolist the millions in Afghanistan. the ring with a wire attached to his performance that could address Michael Montenegro says he’s “in- back. At the end of the wire was both the human cost of war as well trigued by the neutrality of creativity. attached a skeleton. So what he was as the profound visual deprivation of A creative person must choose how afraid of, what he was running away a nation kept in the dark regarding to use her/his gifts... DaVinci made from was attached to him. This is on its actions. this extraordinary painting, the Mona the surface a simple visual joke. But “I am always struck by the voice- Lisa, and at the same time designed of course it is a very good nonverbal less nature of the real victims of any weapons... using his tremendous gifts commentary on our lives.” The Sublime Beauty of Hands, performance, Michael Montenegro. Images courtesy of the artist. 8 F NEWSMAGAZINE READING & WRITING

Scott Barsotti Exploring the genre of FEAR

BY RITA DeANGELO

Scott Barsotti’s forward and wel- coming demeanor makes him feel like an old high school pal. When we met, his dress shirt was hid- den by a cozy zip-up sweatshirt and his potentially presentable hair was hibernating underneath a stocking cap. If necessary, he could look professional. After learning of Barsotti’s theatrical goals, it seems that the concept of the unknown–whether it be his ambiguous appearance or the situations he creates–is a theme he holds dear. In September, Barsotti was named one of four new Resident Playwrights at Chicago Drama- tists. (Among the other four is SAIC Writing faculty member Ruth Margraff.) Over a 3-year term, with the possibility of re- newing for another, the Resident The Revenants, performance. Images courtesy of Scott Barsotti. Playwright program provides its chosen playwrights with support ing with actors and a director a medium, the audience becomes Read your own work. Get out and in the form of dramaturgical feed- appealed to him. Barsotti cites vulnerable, manipulated by their see theatre. Network with people. back, access to their programs this as his most fulfi lling writing own fears. Chicago’s a very unique theatre and resources, as well as the experience. He was hooked. “The Revenants,” opening at town and companies are con- opportunity to extend their work In 2004, Barsotti entered Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre stantly producing so playwrights to a wider network of theatres. SAIC for an MFA in Writing. He Company on October 16, illus- have constant opportunities In it’s 30th year, the Resident worked with Beau O’Reilly and trates Barsotti’s skill to turn a to get their work up. It’s about Playwright program has become Jenny Magnus, two people with horrifi c situation into a metaphor just making the work. You can’t a nationally known honor. whom he continues his profes- that the audience can relate to. please everybody so you have Born in the blue-collar city of sional relationships through In the piece, one representative to write what you want to write Pittsburgh, PA, Barsotti had no their company, Curious Theatre from each of two couples be- and always be engaged in it.” encounters with theatre pre- Branch. In his fi nal year at SAIC comes a zombie. Chained in the college. As a Writing major at Barsotti recognized his interest in basement, the zombies await the Denison University, it was not fear. In hindsight, it seems obvi- next move from their still-living until his friends convinced him to ous to him now, and even as he loved ones. As the loved ones de- write a script for a One Act festi- explained it, the pieces fell into liberate over the unfortunate turn val that Barsotti even considered place. Barsotti writes from the of events, the play turns into a writing for the stage. As he wrote, subconscious, uninterested in an terrifying description of the emo- he realized that his tendency to- explanation for every character tional turmoil and potential col- wards dialogue lent itself well to or exposition for every scenario. lapse of relationships when one playwriting. The process of work- He leaves parts of his plays partner undergoes an unexpected open to interpretation. Often, alteration of any kind: something the production process reveals almost everyone can relate to. the intentions of Barsotti’s work Barsotti continues to examine that he was unable to pinpoint. Other times, the unknown re- “Everyone is afraid of the unknown, mains unexplained, requiring the audience members to use their the supernatural, the other. Decent imaginations to fi ll the gaps.For Barsotti, both options are part of horror is viscerally frightening, good the exploratory and collaborative process of theatre. horror is psychologically frightnening, Barsotti’s interest in the unex- plained is not limited to what he and great horror is both.” does not describe in his scripts. Rather, it spans the subject the human psyche through his matter of the pieces themselves. horror scripts, whether they be More than comedy or drama, Bar- about zombies, grave robbers, sotti explained, the fear genre is witchcraft, or torture. “McMeekin transcultural. Everyone is afraid Finds Out” is in development to of the unknown, the supernatural, be produced and Barsotti is cur- the Other. As he sees it, decent rently adapting Robert Lewis Ste- horror is viscerally frightening, venson’s short story, “The Body good horror is psychologically Snatchers.” In addition to being frightening, and great horror a Resident Playwright at Chicago is both. By creating relatable Dramatists, Barsotti works with scenarios, Barsotti’s horror other horror-theatre disciples is heightened. The audience at Wildclaw Theatre, is involved members then can associate with with the Curious Theatre Branch it, recalling fears and projecting and EP Theater, where he is work- them onto what they are watch- ing on a December holiday show. ing unfold. In this way, the view- When asked what advice he ers fi ll the unanswered with their has for aspiring playwrights, own thoughts, inciting fear in Barsotti’s spark of determina- a more personal way. With the un- tion shined through. “The most answered stage action serving as important is to always be writing. READING & WRITING F NEWSMAGAZINE 9

Drama Queen

An interview with Ruth Margraff, SAIC Associate Professor, playwright, opera writer and singer-songwriter

STORY AND PHOTOS BY ANNE KNIGHT WEBER

Ruth Margraff considers herself She grew up memorizing the jevo changed herer wworldoro ldd vview,ieiew, MMar-arr- a gypsy, not only because of her Bible and played music in her graff said. “Its veryery ddisillusioningisillusioninng zest for traveling all over the church from the time she was to be in a war torn countryy aandnd world, but also because she plays fi ve until she was seventeen. see that at any moment people Roma gypsy music. Margraff “I think there is a lot of similar- could start fi ghting again. Seeing learned gypsy music when she ity between the theater and the that kind of violence and hatred lived with the Gourbeti tribe in church, and it’s shocking to me is really alarming. That’s why Serbia for a summer, She used sometimes how much similar- I feel strongly about the hatred her experience to form Café An- ity, because when I deviated speech that’s happening right now tarsia, a world folk music band. from the church, I just went in the Republican party... It’s so She has red hair that cascades to another church, which is frightening to see it happening in around her face and colorful the church of the theater.” America, because this is what hap- clothes. She’s young, too, but For a time in her life, she said pened in Rwanda…The hate radio not so young she will tell you her she “tried to quench any refer- was what stirred up Rwandans age. “In the music industry, we ence to my background and lost to butcher each other with hand have to pretend to be teenag- almost everybody from that time tools and farm tools…Language is ers,” she said. Margraff is a writer period because they believed, I very important. ” of plays, song lyrics and opera went, I backslid and am going to After their Sarajevo experience, librettos as well as a performer hell. So a lot of them don’t want Margraff and husband/bandmate/ and SAIC writing professor. to talk to me anymore,” she said. composer Nikos Brisco wrote a In addition to being the lead Margraff’s martial arts choreo- working class opera called “Well- singer of Café Antarsia, Ruth graphed operas have been pro- spring” about a woman who looks Margraff is also a playwright. Her duced over fi fty times. Fred Ho for her United Nations Peace play “All those Violent Sweaters” wrote the music for the martial Keeping husband who is missing a piece that takes female high arts operas that have appeared in Sarajevo. school friendship to the bone, at the Guggenheim and PBS’ has been produced fi ve times show “Eye on Dance” produced and is anthologized in a book by Celia Ipiotis in New York, and “When I deviated from the church, I just of monologues for women. the Chicago Theater. One of the Thirty-fi ve of Margraff’s plays operas, “Night Vision: A First to went to another church, which is the church have been produced, and her Thirds World Vampyre Opera,” list of publications is long. is about a singer who is cor- of the theater.” “I love and relate to the gypsy rupted by commercial success. aesthetic so much, because I am Margraff wants to “push She and Brisco also collabo- a kind of gypsy. I had to move a the form of opera into a more rated on a folk operetta about her lot and travel and had to be on working-class direction and make Aunt Pearl who died at the age of my own and independent.” Her it more non-western because op- 45. “She basically drank herself parents divorced when she was era is a European tradition.” She to death,” Margraff said. Aunt seventeen, catapulting her out on believes that working class music Pearl “taught [her] a lot from her own, she said. “It was rough.” is not about being slick or high- her grave” about the hard life in Her father was a Baptist tech, but about “having almost no the coal-mining country of West preacher. “We lost all of our budget, playing acoustically, rath- Virginia. When performing Judges churches...my father, his or- er than digitally, and celebrating 19 Margraff paints with beer. dination was revoked. It was characters who are folk or mar- How does she manage to have a climactic time,” she said. ginal, they are not important… done so much? She said, “I am Though she is no longer a and celebrating them as though not a particularly lucky person, Baptist, that tradition is impor- they were as important as some- so I have to work harder. Some tant to her work. “I think that one in an opera. I think you have people are lucky, just everything the language that I write with to celebrate characters that have falls in their lap. It’s not like has been called ‘neo-Biblical’ be- been forgotten and I think you that for me, so I have to work cause I was raised with the King do that by treating them with an for everything,” she said. James Version of the Bible. I’m emotional scale that is operatic.” comfortable reading very dense Margraff’s mother was a United and poetic language, because Nations peacekeeper for fi ve of being versed in the Bible.” years. Visiting her mother in Sara- 10 F NEWSMAGAZINE READING & WRITING NEVER STOP SMILING

A Chicago magazine ventures into book publishing

INTERVIEW BY WHITNEY STOEPEL

Nestled among the rows of weathered neon furniture store signs on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park is the Stop Smiling storefront. “Stop Smiling”, a Chicago-based magazine and soon-to-become book publisher, touts itself as the magazine for “high-minded low-lifes.” It panders to the intellectual set but also oozes with modest coolness, much like the subjects of their interviews with people like Steve McQueen, Oliver Stone, William S. Burroughs, and David Lynch. I asked J.C. Gabel, editor in chief, about expanding into book publishing.

WhatWha kind of books will you be publishing?

All creative nonfi ction, in tune with the maga- zinezine’s editorial mantra. Our fi rst three original bobookso are “How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The HisHistory of the Vocoder” by Dave Tompkins; “Li“Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury IntInterviews” by Bradbury biographer, Sam WeWeller; and a book companion to Cal Arts fi lm professor,pr Thom Andersen’s brilliant video essay,es “Los Angeles Plays Itself”. In a nutshell, theth books will run the gamut from subject to subject.s We’ll also be repackaging the classic, long-formlo Stop Smiling Interviews in three volumes,v unabridged: fi lmmakers, authors anda musicians respectively... one will be releasedr each fall for the next three years.

Will the website and blog remain intact?

Yes, but it will be adapted to refl ect the fact that we’re a book publisher now.

How does being a book publisher or magazine editor in Chicago (as op- posed to New York, L.A., London) have an impact on you and your product, as well as on the rest of the publishing industry?

Being in Chicago has its advantages and disadvantages.

We still have an offi ce in New York, and our publishing partner, Melville House/Random House, are also based there; meaning, a portion of our busi- ness will always be run through New York, which is where the publish- ing industry is centered. So technically our books will be published out of New York, since they’ll be printed on the East Coast and warehoused there. Our presence in Chicago as a publisher can only do us some good, seeing as how there are no publishers in the city that operate like our im- print will. I’m hoping this helps our impact throughout the city.

As far as being an editor, in Chicago, it’s really easy to zone out and brood about our projects here with- out the distractions that exist in New York. It’s also a lot more affordable to live and work here. But a great deal of our ability to gain access to story subjects requires us to go where the story is, and it’s usually in New York or LA. Rarely do we get to interview sub- jects in Chicago, unless they are coming through town to promote something; and even then, we abhor press junkets, since we can’t get the in-depth access we’d be looking for. I should note, however, that on a grass- roots level we have a storefront in Wicker Park, which (From top) we’ve used to galvanize support around our publish- Issue 36: Expatriate, Issue 28: ing endeavors as well as other non-Stop Smiling related 20 Interviews, Issue 24: The Chicago Is- sue, Issue 27: Ode to the Midwest. projects of the publishing variety. We’re also going to Images courtesy of stopsmiling.com start programming fi lm events next year in conjunction with the Gene Siskel Film Center, too. Most of these will tie into our book projects on some level, as well. READING & WRITING F NEWSMAGAZINE 11

Beau O’Reilly

Playwriting is a collaborative process

Illustration by BY ANNE KNIGHT WEBER Luke Armitstead

Beau O’Reilly, who has taught play- have a lot of characters in them.” a writing residency for teachers at company, Curious Theatre Branch, writing at SAIC for over a decade, The upcoming show is unusual “The Catwalk” in upstate New York. that he co-founded twenty years ago, has written 70 plays that have been for him because it has two charac- He writes in coffee shops, such with a troupe of fi fteen or so actors. produced and he has directed or ters with a third character of live as The Bourgeois Pig in Lincoln SAIC students occasionally have been acted more than 130 additional music that comes in from the side. Park. He likes business around him, invited to join the group as writers or plays of new work. “My priority is His story is dialogue driven and because he grew up in a large family are cast in a role for a performance. writing. I don’t write every day. I unfolds while two people talk. with nine sisters and four brothers. “No Longer the Rock of the write in really long sustained bursts. O’Reilly is from a theatre family “Sitting by the radio, for me, that’s World” will be performed at the Cen- Sometimes I write for three or four and both his sons act. “My father quiet,” he said. ter Portion Gallery for a six week days in a row.” ran the Court Theater in Hyde Park At the end of his residency, when run. The space is great for O’Reilly His play “No longer the Rock and then he ran The Body Politic, he’d fi nished his project, he had an- because it is set up for about thirty of the World” is in production now, which was in the Victory Gardens… other idea. “I’d been thinking about people with a cabaret stage, “very opening on November 29 at Center He was a director, but he also acted. this play for awhile in the back of intimate and small” he said. Portion Gallery in Logan Square. He was known as a Shakespearean my mind, so I sat down and I wrote He likes writing for the fringe He said his plays are “story driven actor, which I have never done.” His it in three days, which for me is or storefront spaces. “Its economi- pieces about people in relationships, mother produced variety shows pretty fast.” cally accessible work, blue collar the ethics of relationships…there’s and musicals. Usually he has specifi c actors theater,” inexpensive to see and often a theme of broken family, re- O’Reilly wrote the play “No Lon- in mind as he writes his plays. He to produce, O’Reilly said. constituted family…my plays usually ger the Rock of the World” while in mostly works with actors in his

Four Chicago Storefront theaters Upcoming Live Performances share these basic similarities

Each of these theaters are collaborative companies that write, Held over until Sunday, November 8, at Theater Oobleck (in the basement of The Chopin Theater in Wicker Park) “An Apology for the course and outcome of certain produce and perform their own original work as inexpensively events delivered by Doctor John Faustus on this his fi nal evening,” written by Mick- le Maher, SAIC MFAW graduate. tickets are $12. More if you’ve got it, free if you’re broke. as possible. Three of the four have a twenty year history of For more information or reservations call 773-347-1041 or visit theateroobleck.com. working in Chicago. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 29 Cabaret Oobleck Curious Theatre Branch (http://curioustheatrebranch.com) 773.347.1041 Curious works with an ensemble of artists in a non-hierarchical deci- Beau O’Reilly and the Crooked Mouth String Band play at at Cabaret Oobleck . sion-making process, using an economy of means and production to make deeper and deeper, rather than larger and larger, work. 9 p.m. Saturday, January 30, 2010 Prop Theater EP theatre (1820 S. Halsted in Pilsen, www.eptheater.com) is a non-profi t that 3502-4 Nl. Elston Ave. did outreach last year with a local elementary school and whose productions have 773.539.7838 included the Acro-Cats, Chicago’s only feline show and dramatic musical shows. Ruth Margraff ’s Café Anastasia will perform new music for Rhinofest.

Oobleck Theater (at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 West Division Street in Wicker Park http://www.theateroobleck.com) members of this ensemble Online at fnewsmagazine.com: work without an overseeing director to create idiosyncratic pieces. In See a video clip of Margraff ’s play”Stadium Devildare. 2008 Mickle Maher’s The Strangerer moved to New York for a success- Hear songs from CD Songs at the Table from “Café Antrasia” ful six-week Off -Broadway engagement at the Barrow Street Theatre. Read a review of a play by Mickle Maher.

Prop Thtr (3202 N. Elston in Logan Square, http://www.propthtr.org) whose focus is to create work around existing pieces of literature from such authors as Salinger and Doestyvsky. This space is also used as a location for Beau Reilly’s Rhino fest and the recent “Alumni Bow” a collection of plays by SAIC alumni. inter interim January 4-January 17, 2010 two-week, three credit intensives for undergraduate and graduate students REGISTRATION BEGINS NOVEMBER 16 The Courses CER 623 001 Fast and Nasty: Actions on Clay Anna Mayer (Cal Arts)

DRAWING 615 001 The Singular, The Multiple, and the In-Between Jesse Bransford (NYU) & Jonah Groeneboer (NYU)

PAINTING 626 001 Encounters at the End of the World: Investigating Landscape Claire Sherman (Knox College) & Carl Baratta (SAIC) Scholarships and Financial Aid Available. For more information, email [email protected] 13 F NEWSMAGAZINE READING & WRITING Unchained

With the increasing irrelevancy of giant chains like Borders, which is closing its store on Michigan Ave, now is the time to familiarize yourself with Chicago’s indepdendent bookstores. In fact, you should have done that yesterday. A quick look at the city’s best: Illustration by Nicole Briant

Quimby’s Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5757 Unabridged Bookstore Barbara’s Bookstore Myopic Books 1854 W North Ave South University, (773)752-4381; 3251 N. Broadway, (773)883-9119 1218 S. Halsted, (312)413-2665 1564 N. Milwaukee, (773)862-4882 Chicago, IL 60622 the co-op also owns 57th St. Books, (773) 342-0910 1301 East 57th, (773)684-1300 The best source in the city for This is the largest store of the inde- Staff of knowledgeable bibliophiles gay and lesbian literature. Open pendent Chicago chains. They’ve got to help you fi nd the right book Specializes in comic books, fun read- You’re not walking into a religious and thriving in its current loca- a massive selection of books of every from its inventory of more than ings, local presses, zines and some trap. The bookstore is located tion since 1980, they also off er variety. Barbara’s also has a built-in 80,000 used top fl oor also plays literotica. Go to this store now. No in the basement of the Chicago a good mix of general fi ction, room for author appearances, so host to local poets, while experi- cellphones inside the store please. Theological Seminary, but it’s got a kid’s books, travel books. you know they’re dedicated. They mental musicians make use of the Makes for a pleasant browsing wide variety of reading matierals, have four Chicago stores and one at unique acoustics of the main fl oor. experience. For their mascot, they infl uenced by the nearby University The Book Cellar O’Hare for when you forget to take A visit here is a great follow up to adapted a cartoon character (whose of Chicago. The consumer-owned 4736 N. Lincoln, (773)293-2665 something to read on the airplane. a seitan reuben from Earwax. name happened to be Quimby) Co-op also owns 57th St Books, created by SAIC alum Chris Ware. which also tends to be scholarly but Wine bar, cafe, and local author After Words Books Revolution Books with a large general interest and hangout and reading venue. They 23 E. Illinois, (312)464-1110 1103 N. Ashland, (773)489-0930 Women & Children First Bookstore childrens’ section. Both of these carry tons of Chicago authors and 5233 N. Clark, (773)769-9299 book stores are for serious readers. Chicago-related books. The late This place carries almost anything, Forums are held while Marx, Mao, Studs Turkel read there a number of with a pretty good used book Lenin and Avakian fi ll the shelves. Feminist bookstore that focuses on Bookworks times, and you can catch Joe Meno selection at reasonable prices, Around since the 1970s this store is books for, well, women and chil- 3444 N. Clark, (773)871-5318 there every now and again. They host even though it’s right off Michigan frequented by those in the neigh- dren. They started a nonprofi t: The readings typically once a month. Avenue. Also, they buy books for borhood, students, professors and Women’s Voices Fund, which raises Bookworks has normal books, but cash every Thursday starting at activists. Probably wise to only pay money to run feminist programming it also off ers rare and out-of-print Prairie Avenue Books four p.m. Who doesn’t dig cash? in cash. No paper trail, no Gitmo. at the store. Go support them. books, also super-old records and 418 S. Wabash, (800)474-2724 vintage photographs. They have Shake, Rattle, and Read Bronzeville Gold a severe dedication to beat poets. It’s near the art schools for a reason: 4812 N. Broadway,(773)334-5311 4655 South King, (773)924-3966 Plus, they buy books and parking is anything you could ever want about always available behind the shop. design and architecture in an inspir- This place may carry a lot of porn, Afro-centric bookstore, creator of ing space designed by co-owner and but it’s also got some dusty vintage “Book It Black to Bronzeville,” a book Chicago Comics retired architect Wilbert R. Hasb- magazines at cheap prices. Some festival that celebrates literature 3244 N. Clark, (773)528-1983 rouck. If you have money to burn, records and Star Trek stuff too. Dis- and emphasizes ‘the importance of you can pick up designy antiques and organized and fascinating. Much like literacy for all Chicagoans.” Notable This store has been around for blueprints. the people who frequent the store. local fi gures have given readings/ fi fteen years, and off ers a compre- signings there, like Chris Gardner, hensive collection of main stream the fi nancial adviser whose life comics, local comics, zines, and story was the inspiration for the some underground lit. Owned by fi lm “Pursuit of Happyness.” the Quimbys’ guy, Eric Kirsammer.

* VINYL CUTTING * REDUCED PRICING * EPSON 9900 (on select inkjet papers) Our newest inkjet printer, which uses the and of course, new Ultrachrome HDR inkset! * AXIS OF OUTPUT * BOOKBINDING The Service Bureau/Advanced Output Center blog! saicaxisofoutput.wordpress.com * BUTTONS The Service Bureau is located in the Sharp Building (37 S Wabash) Suite 1111. Now offering... 14 F NEWSMAGAZINE READING AND WRITING

An Interview with Shortpants Press Founder Sarah Becan The skinny on Shortpants

All images courtesy of Shortpants Press

INTERVIEW BY EMILE FERRIS

Right up until 2004, Sarah Becan and M. Jason Robards were simply two eye open for anything new and say that the graphic novel is going price. Our books are at Chicago artists who - as their website proclaims - liked making comics because it’s interesting. And I’m just as to supplant the prose novel as Comics and Quimby’s, under “art that reaches tons of people who’d never set foot inside of a SoHo gallery.” happy to talk someone through a popular form of storytelling, deals like that. I know Graham But that year Becan and Robards became the founders of Shortpants the process of self-publishing but I doubt that’ll happen in Crackers and Comix Revolution Press, a boutique publishing venture that writer/reviewer Tom as I am to publish a new book. our generation. I would love to do the same sort of deal too. Spurgeon of the “Comics Reporter” has called “one of the half-dozen see comics achieve that level of So locally, distro is easy, but most reliable sources for quality mini-comics going right now.” Within the comics legitimacy and respect, but I’m it requires some legwork. In this interview with Sarah Becan, F Newsmagazine comics EF community whose afraid it’s slow going. It’s partly Regionally or nationally, there editor Emile Ferris attempts to garner information about the critical attention/opinion because most people don’t think really aren’t many distro houses comics scene, as well as the joys and pitfalls of self-publishing. do you most respect? comics is capable of anything in the game, which is unfortunate. Oh, there are so many beyond superheroes and the Diamond rules the roost for Emile Ferris: Why did you SB good people out there. I funny pages, but it’s also partly comics distribution, but they’re become a publisher? follow Joanna Draper Carlson because the comics world itself hardly ever a viable option for at Comics Worth Reading, and hasn’t done enough to undo that the self-publisher. Bodega (http:// Sarah Becan: I actually didn’t of course Tom Spurgeon at the stereotype. Attitudes are shifting, www.bodegadistribution.com) start out trying to be a publisher. Comics Reporter. Douglas Wolk on both sides, but change comes does distribution for smaller When we came up with the name is an incredibly insightful comics slowly. runs, as does Last Gasp (http:// Shortpants Press, it was just a reader. Although I don’t think www.lastgasp.com), but I know name for my friend Jason and I’ve ever geeked out so much as What can you recommend in a lot of people who’ve had great I to exhibit under together. We when one of my books got a good EFregards to self-publishing? luck with a guy named Tony were just a vanity press, putting review from Thurston Moore, in One of the best resources Shenton. He’s just this guy in New out our own books. Then a Arthur’s Bull Tongue segment. SBwe’ve come across is York, a comics fan, who used friend approached us to see if “Whatcha Mean it’s a Zine” by to work in the industry. Now he we wanted to put out his book, Do you go to comic Esther Watson. A lot of great takes on clients who self publish, and then another, and another. I EF conventions and if so, which comics artists and zinesters and for a percentage of sales, realized there were a lot of artists do you find to be the best? contributed, and it’s full of great he’ll take bulk orders for you from out there who had lots of talent of the Shortpants Observer. It’s We do go to comic information not just about the a bunch of comic book stores. but maybe didn’t have the time an anthology project, much like SB conventions. We’ve done history of self-publishing, but He talks up your books to the or inclination or resources to Blood Orange or Papercutter. We Wizard World Chicago, SPX, also a lot of detailed information stores, they place an order thru self-publish. I work as a creative got four very talented comics APE—we’re actually getting ready about how to physically print and him, and suddenly you have 5 or director and graphic designer, artists – for this issue it was to fly out for that one right now— assemble a book, information on 10 copies of your books selling so I have access to high quality Corinne Mucha, Jeremy Tinder, TCAF in Toronto, Stumptown silkscreening, binding, everything at a handful of stores across the scanners, I know how to use Becca Taylor and Anya Davidson in Portland Oregon, and the you could want to know. country. So there are definitely all the computer programs, I – and gave them free rein to do as new Windy City Comicon that options for distribution, even know how to set up a multi-page many pages as they wanted. Each just started up. I don’t know if I What are the benefits if you’re just hand-assembling file in printers’ spreads, and I one turned out phenomenal work, could tell you which one is best, EF of self-publishing and 100 copies of your book. have relationships with lots of and I had a great time putting the they all have different nuances. what are the pitfalls? The best resource for the self- print houses in the city. It made files together and laying them Wizard World is its own animal, The pitfalls, of course, publisher, though, is definitely sense to use those resources out in a book. It’s probably our dominated by the mainstream SB are that it’s a lot more the Internet. It’s so easy these to help out my fellow artists. most ambitious project to date, companies and filled with people work, and you’re using your days, and almost free, to set up but the end result is just lovely. in costumes. SPX and APE, TCAF own money to finance it. And an online shop, take credit card If you have seen an increase and Stumptown, they’re much it’s harder to get recognition, info through Pay Pal, and ship EF in the interest in comics and What kind of submissions more indie-centric, people who but the field is opening up more things out yourself. It’s the best graphic novels, to what would you EFare you seeking? go to those shows are looking to self-publishers every day. way to make money doing what attribute this heightened Since we all have day jobs for things that are interesting The benefits of self-publishing we do, because for once no one’s attention? SBoutside of Shortpants Press, and different. Stumptown are myriad. You’re your own taking a cut of the sales. And Well, certainly more and we do have the sort of luxury of seems especially receptive to boss, no one edits your work, there are so many places to set SB more mainstream movies only putting out books that we’re handmade, handprinted things. no one tries to make it more up shop. You can go through seem to be coming to the comics really excited about. I’m very TCAF, oddly, doesn’t seem “marketable”, you can dictate Etsy, through eBay, Zen Cart, world for film ideas, which interested in anything different, nearly as interested in the DIY every aspect of your piece. You Cube Cart, Magento, there are eventually brings more people unique, new; anything that tries books, but they treat exhibitors can make it exactly how you tons of free and almost-free into the comic book stores. I to expand the definition of “comic extremely well. The Windy City want it to be, and every time one resources out there for setting think, at least I hope, more and book” and that wouldn’t fit in with Comicon is just getting its legs, sells, you get all the money. up your own e-commerce. more people are slowly starting to the mainstream publishers. I’m a but it’s a great convention. It’s realize that there can be a depth big fan of the literary approach, up in Boystown, so it’s incredibly Is distribution of self- of powerful storytelling in the the content-driven approach, and easy to get to, and it’s just a EF published materials a tough comic book format. of course anything handmade. great mix of local talent. nut to crack? How is it best done? I like a comic book to be an Distribution is definitely What books are you most art object in its own right. Where do you see comics SBtricky. Lots of stores, EF proud of publishing? We’re not actively seeking EFgoing in the future? especially the local Chicago ones, The one I’m most proud of out new things to publish right I’m afraid to even hazard will take books on consignment, SB is probably the first issue now, but I do always have my SBa guess. I’ve heard people giving you 50% or so of the cover READING & WRITING F NEWSMAGAZINE 15

Life of the book An interview with Kyle Beachy Photos by Jen Mosier

BY NATALIE EDWARDS

Kyle Beachy answered his phone, work out. “I wasn’t able to get an He wants his books to be books “Kyle Beachy, published author.” agent, so I just continued to revise “It was a total you can sit down and get through. It’s a joke. He isn’t married to it, smacked it around and tried to mindfuck to have my “The Slide came out of me as a the idea of being an author, even get it into shape.” slow meditation on adulthood, though he has just published his After he fi nished grad school, book come out and but if you’re going to write a fi rst book, “The Slide,” which was he taught at the Art Institute, meditation you have to be really named “Best Book by a Chicago Loyola, and did freelance work, have people reading smart, have to justify a slow Author in the Last Year” by the while he shopped his book moving book, so at a certain point, Chicago Reader. Beachy graduated around. He sent out over 115 it suddenly. It was an I said, ‘Screw it.’ So I’m interested from the MFAW program at the queries to literary agents. “I was in the idea of speed, and interested School of the Art Institute in 2005. very aggressive in my search act of estrangement.” in writing a book that can be read He says he went into the program for an agent, sending out e-mail very quickly, but that doesn’t with the goal of coming out with queries daily, like 5 of them. sacrifi ce on some level of insight “The Slide,” his coming-of-age Eventually a woman in San Diego The life of the book could be or relevance.” saga about 22-year-old Potter who had done a lot of nonfi ction distracting, but Beachy tries not to Beachy doesn’t believe that Mays, working through a delayed but who was getting back into Google himself or read his amazon novels should be impossible to adolescence. Potter moves in with fi ction picked it up and was able reviews often. He doesn’t take get through. “I don’t think that his parents post-college, post- to sell it to Dial Press, a division of hostile, Slide-related Facebook pacing and narrative movement heartbreak, without a plan. He Random House.” He then worked messages too seriously, either. have to come at the price of worth, drives a water truck, is obsessed on revisions for another year with “You get in a habit of not caring validity, impact.” with baseball, befriends a fi fth- an editor. “It was cool to have as much as you did,” he said. In For now, Beachy has decided grader, infi ltrates a religious someone whose whole job is to the beginning, he says he cared to be a writer, but he says that if cult and watches his parents’ think about your book and how about internet and book-world he wanted to stop and get a Ph.D. relationship crumble. it could be made better. You have chatter, but ultimately, it wasn’t in economics he would consider Beachy’s path to publication to justify yourself.” From start to helping his work. What does help, it. He seems to be preoccupied was, as he described it in a rush fi nish, getting his book out into the he says, is recalling the reasons he with assignation of arbitrary and and without pathos, “just working world took more than seven years. chooses to write. artifi cial value. He wants to know very, very hard at SAIC the whole The more Beachy put into “The fi rst book you write is how the price of his signed edition time I was there, the full two his novel, the more invested he very much yourself. I suppose on amazon.com got set at $49.99. years.” He fi nished his draft as became, and the more confi dent there are authors whose fi rst “Don’t they know I’ll sign anything planned, attended the Breadloaf he had to be. Though the process novels aren’t some minimal for free?” Literary Conference on a waiter’s was long, he said, “It was a total deviation from their own story,” scholarship (young authors are mindfuck to have my book come out he said. “There’s a certain reason given a full scholarship but must and have people reading it suddenly. the fi rst book is the fi rst, because wait tables for the big shots while It was an act of estrangement and these are the things you need to they are there)–and compiled a alienation from something I had get out. You get them out.” bunch of references that didn’t been working on for so long.” Orphans and HIV/AIDS in Africa

Children Orphaned by AIDS as % of all orphans in Africa

Group picture of SAIC faculty and therapeutic arts trainees (l to r): Angela Lyonsmith, Sane Wadu (Kenyan painter), Cathy Moon, Eunice Wadu, and in front is Haui Ahmad Maeda Photo by Linda Stolz

Areas visited by the with grief, they may experience coded form, so that no one needs Therapeutic Trip for GAA confusion, reinforcing the sense to know its meaning other than of isolation. “In some cases, those people the child chooses to the kids also experience abuse, tell. So the role of the therapeutic KENYA neglect, domestic violence, child artist is to create a safe space labor exploitation, substance where kids can express whatever Nairobi abuse by a caregiver, and their needs to be expressed, without own medical issues due to be- necessarily having to speak ing HIV positive,” Moon said. about diffi cult or taboo topics.” When she returned to Africa To have Africans teaching TANZANIA 0-20% this summer, she wrote a training Africans is Moon’s goal for GAA’s manual containing very basic arts therapy program, as well as 20-40% counseling concepts and art fi nancial sustainability, which is 40-60% therapy theory to help GAA’s why there is also a vocational Over 60% African therapeutic artists to ad- component to the program. Art No data available dress and understand the African forms are to be sold to fund the children’s trauma and grief. program. A woman’s weaving Moon says that it was great for co-op exists, and these women her to write. She just said what are emissaries for GAA’s mission. Amount of orphans by type Amounts in thousands she knew at the most basic level. Andrea Koch, Art Therapy 410 410 Moon doesn’t think that the Alumni (2009), joined Moon for African artists needed help the 2009 trip. Koch was moved understanding the children’s by Moon’s experience, and spent grief. “What happened was that $4500 on an airline ticket. She we shared ideas about how to helped Moon train the African not only help children express artists in basic counseling and manage their grief, but also techniques to weave that into build skills, a sense of agency, what they were already doing. and resilience,” she said. 150 Besides writing the training 130 140 130 Children making art in new library (built by Global Alliance) in Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya Photo by Catherine Moon manual. Moon worked with “What happened was kids. Moon says, “Our art mak- ing with the kids while we are that we shared ideas there is either for enrichment, or connected to these train- about how to not only ings” and that working with the KENYA TANZANIA kids together with the African help children express artists is part of the training. Double Orphans Paternal Orphans Maternal Orphans Two artists, Sane and Eunice, and manage their grief, A Manual had already opened up their own studios to local kids. “For but also build skills, them,” she said, “the trainings affi rmed their intuitive ways of a sense of agency, Orphans are working, added to their theoreti- cal knowledge, and gave them and resilience.” 50% 4% legitimacy within their communi- less likely to be ties. It was important for them to in school than have a certifi cate of completion Koch said “the experience of the households that include non-orphans because people in their com- was really cool because it really one or more children orphaned for Relief or made vulnerable by HIV in munity have been suspicious of strengthens my belief in the use- Tanzania, receive some form of 40-60% their work with kids, thinking fulness of art therapy, expands assistance, such as medical care, SAIC’s Therapeutic Arts and they were just doing it to gain my belief of what art therapy can school assistance, financial of orphaned children in Africa access to humanitarian aid.” In be, and what it can do.” Koch support, or psychosocial services are cared for by grandmothers the Global Alliance for Africa their collaboration with GAA, was able to “really focus on art Sane and Eunice will start a making and working with people weekly therapeutic arts program that are in need.” Originally an in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi. They art major in college, it was those Amount of orphans due to AIDS will travel there once a week things that interested her in the BY M.J. VILLAMOR while still working with the kids fi eld of art therapy. Koch states, KENYA TANZANIA where they live in Tanzania. “I learned so much. I learned Maeda, another trainee on fac- more, a ton more, than I ever ulty at Bagamoyo College of Arts, can teach these people.” When 44% Art Therapy Department Chair needs. In order to visit more 46% already had a sports and arts asked whether it was worth it, Catherine Moon did not know places in Tanzania, Moon stayed program in Kenya. Maeda had considering the cost of gradu- about Global Alliance for Africa three and a half weeks, one been doing drama, music, and ate school, she said, “I don’t (GAA) until she received a call more week than the length of dance with children, but “he used regret it at all. If I could come from them in 2008. Shortly after, the program. She observed that it purely as a diversion from their up with the money to go back she was on a plane to Tanzania. East Africa was a place of ethnic troubles.” Moon worked with the every year, I would do it.” In July 2006, GAA, a program division, a place where she says kids from Maeda’s program in Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS helping communities provide there is still lots of tension. training him. According to Moon, sustainable care and support “In general,” Moon said, Maeda believes in the “arts to for orphans and other children “the people in Kenya are very distract” from the turmoil exist- affected by HIV/AIDS, created concerned about the tense Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya Photo by Catherine Moon Adults 1,200,000 1,300,000 ing in these kid’s lives. Moon 1,500 an art program in East Africa. political situation there and a states, “It was a new perspective 940 GAA set up weekend art camps recurrence of the violence that ing, dancing, poking fun at each communities that have expe- overcrowded household and for him to think that art could Children 150,000 110,000 in Kenya and Tanzania, with occurred after the last election. other.” She was amazed by the rienced multiple losses. Some add to the fi nancial burden, also be a way for children to ad- hundreds of children participat- The people in both countries hospitality and affection showed have to become the caregiv- which can lead to a feeling of not dress and possibly resolve their ing and local artists serving as are concerned about poverty by both adults and children. ers for their younger siblings.” belonging and a lack of emotional troubled feelings. In countries KENYA TANZANIA guides. The artists helped the and government corruption.” “Men even hold hands in public.” These circumstances compound support. Because of fi nancial wor- where death, particularly death children focus on visual art, voca- She says that as a Mzungu But Moon also observed the the fi nancial hardships that the ries, the child may be forced to from AIDS, is seldom discussed tional art, music, and dance. GAA (white person), she was hassled trauma the children experience. majority of people in East Africa drop out of school… so he or she with kids, we had to have some wanted to add a therapeutic arts on the street, but when in peo- She describes it as “complex, already experience. Institutional can earn money for the family.” discussions about how to open component to their program, and ple’s homes or visiting their work compounding, and prolonged for care is rare, so children are taken Add to this the stigma and up these avenues of expression Infographic by Javier López Moon was the person that GAA site, she was treated like a queen. these kids.” She explains that in by relatives or become heads bullying that go along with being for children while still respect- needed to make that happen. “They always wanted to feed me, “not only do they experience the of households. Others are left an orphan and the trauma is com- ing the beliefs and practices of Data compiled from “Children affected by AIDS, Her goal for that fi rst year was even the poorest of the poor were often protracted and suffering- homeless. “When they move in pounded. Many children, are nev- families and communities. On Africa’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Generations ” published by UNICEF, 2005 to get a sense of the cultural generous. We also had a lot of fun fi lled deaths of their parents, but with relatives,” Moon said, “they er told their parents have AIDS the other hand, we talked about — context, and understand GAA’s with people making jokes, sing- they are parts of families and often contribute to an already or have died of AIDS, so along how art expression can occur in a READING & WRITING F NEWSMAGAZINE 19

The Do Gooder List literacy volunteer opportunities BY WHITNEY STOEPEL

Volunteering is a great way to meet people who share your interests. Not-for-profi ts are perfect for letters of reference and networking as well. There are a lot of advantages, but the feeling of helping others can’t be beat. Half a million people in Chicago are illiterate. Here are some literacy groups that always need help. Open Books, Ltd.

“Open Books is a nonprofi t social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volun- teers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond. Their mission is to enrich lives through reading, writing, and the power of used books.” What’s cool about Open Books: There is a huge variety of ways to help. You can volunteer at events (like Pitchfork, the Printer’s Row Book Fair or the Logan Square Farmer’s Market), you can work at their bookstore, and you can tutor, or just simply donate some used books. They will even pick them up from you. The orientation process: It is well-organized, informative and fun. They have so many orientation sessions; you’ll be able to fi nd time to make it to one.

Contact info: 230 W. Institute Place, Suite 305 Everything you need can be found on their website, http://www.open-books.org/index.php

826 Chicago (The Boring Store)

Started by author Dave Eggers and disguised behind a Spy Storefront in Wicker Park, The Boring is awesome. “826CHI is a non-profi t organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and exposi- tory writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.” What’s Cool About 826: Its sense of humor. They have Scrabble Tourna- ments where players can pay to cheat, robot proms, and mustache parties. Word to the Volunteers can teach a class on anything to the kids, go on fi eld trips, work in the store, or contribute to after-school tutoring, among other things. You can also get early, cheap tickets to Dave Eggers-related events like the premiere of one of his movies, like “Away We Go” or “Where the Wild Things Are.” The orientation process: An hour long group meeting with Patrick Shaff ner, 826’s hilarious Outreach Coordinator. Volunteers are given a manual and StreetWise sign up for email lists that correspond to their interests. Meet Jack Moretti. He has lived in Contact Info: 1331 North Milwaukee Ave. Chicago all of his life and has been a Phone: 773.772.8108 StreetWise vendor for about 5 years. http://www.826chi.org/ Photo by Laura Schell How it works

BY LAURA SCHELL

StreetWise vendor Robert Nelson per sellers collect up to $375 a week. has lived in Chicago for about forty Jack Moretti is another StreetWise years and started selling StreetWise vendor who has lived in Chicago all magazines in 1993 or 1994. He has his life. However, unlike Nelson, he always sold the magazine in the same is a relatively new vendor, having location, on the corner of Michigan sold the magazine for only about Avenue and Superior in front of Saks fi ve years. Moretti said his best Fifth Avenue. He sells the magazine sales day was, “during Christmas every day and said, “otherwise [he] and I made over 125 dollars.” Like Chicago Hopes doesn’t think [he] would stay afl oat.” Nelson, Moretti has many returning He says selling magazines is hard customers. He said he usually starts “Aims to provide services for all homeless students in Chicago. The mission of work; he remembers one Saturday between 9 and 10 a.m. and his post is the CPS Educational Support for Students in Temporary Living Situations is when he only made three dollars outside the door of Trader Joe’s on to provide an educational environment that treats all students with dignity after selling for fi ve hours. “Rain is Ontario and Wabash on Wednesday, and respect. Every CPS homeless student shall have equal access to the the only thing that shuts me down,” Thursday and Friday. On the other same free and appropriate educational opportunities as students who are said Nelson, who has many repeat days of the weeks he goes where not homeless.” customers. One of Nelson’s repeat there aren’t very many StreetWise What’s Cool About Chicago Hopes: It is little known that during the 2008- customers was an elderly woman vendors, usually on the west side and 2009 school year, over 12,000 Chicago Public School students self-identifi ed who once gave him $200 before she the south suburbs. as homeless. One volunteer said, “It changed my idea of what it means to be passed away. He said that was his Nelson said that he was very homeless in America. It shattered any stereotypes I might have had about best sales day. concerned a while back that, “we the ‘typical homeless person.’” StreetWise is published by an orga- were close to shutting down.” Since The Orientation Process: If you want to volunteer, just fi ll out the form nization by the same name that tries selling StreetWise is Nelson’s only online. They need tutors and only ask for a minimum of one session a week to keep people off the streets and get means of supporting himself, the and there is a multitude of locations to choose from. There is a two-hour those who are on the streets back on impact of a magazine shutdown orientation process and you can choose the location that works best for you. their feet. Started in 1993, Chicago’s would have been devastating. StreetWise has helped over 8000 Contact Info: 125 S. Clark St. 9th Floor Chicago, IL 60603 vendors become more self-suffi cient Phone: 773.553.2242 by providing them with something Email at [email protected]. to sell to make a profi t. The vendors sell the magazine for a profi t on many Literacy Works corners in Chicago. According to Ben Cook, the StreetWise production manager, the “Literacy Works’ mission is to fulfi ll the promise of a basic human right: to organization’s goal for its content is read, write, and interpret the world. To accomplish its mission, Literacy Works to “Give a voice to the under-served.” promotes adult literacy and family literacy in Chicago providing training to The organization has two edito- volunteer tutors, unique workshops for adult literacy students, and an array of rial staff members, and quite a few services that strengthen community-based adult and family literacy programs.” interns and freelancers. The vendors What’s Cool About Literacy Works: This is a perfect opportunity if you are go to the StreetWise offi ce in the bilingual. Literacy Works specializes in English As A Second Language tutoring Loop at 1201 West Lake Street and for adults to help them get better jobs and schooling. They also host events pick-up the new issues, which come with authors and musicians at venues like the Hopleaf in Andersonville. out on Wednesdays. The Orientation Process: Literacy Works will train volunteers to be be- A new vendor must purchase a come a tutor in an English as a Second Language (ESL) or Adult Basic Educa- minimum of thirty magazines. Street- tion (ABE) program. They also host many supplemental training events with Wise vendors purchase the maga- some interesting topics that include Immigrant Connect: Help Your Learners zines for seventy-fi ve cents and sell Tell Their Stories. These are all listed on the website. them for $2, making a $1.25 profi t on each magazine they sell. Cook stated Contact Info: 6216 N. Clark Street that the beginner vendors sell about Phone: 773-334-8255 forty to sixty magazines a week and Email at [email protected] average vendors sell $60 - $130 worth of magazines a week. StreetWise’s su- A 40-year resident of Chicago, Robert Nelson has been a StreetWise vendor for 15 years. Photo by Laura Schell 20 F NEWSMAGAZINE READING & WRITING Surprised by Libraries Your library has much more than just books

BY NATALIE EDWARDS Harold Washington Bucktown-Wicker Park 400 South State Street 1701 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 60647 (312) 747-4396 (312) 744-6022 If you believe that books should Some complain about the patrons It's an environmentally sustainable, be worn and used, and if you of this particular library, what with new building, like many newer CPL like being part of a community, it being downtown and open to any buildings, built under the Leader- even if that community includes person that wants to go inside–that ship in Energy and Environmental some people that smell like being the mission and purpose of Design (LEED) Green Building pee, the Chicago Public Library public libraries and all–but if you're Rating System, developed by system might be for you. afraid of interacting with Chicago- the U.S. Green Building Council. The CPL has over 10,745,600 ans, you should probably just stay It's also a place where you can volumes, and if they don't have at home. Also, you probably need pick up hot chicks and dudes. what you want, they'll get it for to reevaluate your classist ways. you from anywhere in the world. Anyway, the Harold Washington They offer a zillion programs Hall is the hub for CPL activities. The 4801 S. Michigan Avenue, 60615 like computer classes, genealogy library was once in The Guinness (312) 747-2541 classes and other stuff retired Book of Records as the largest people like, but they also have public library building in the world. This branch was birthed by the fi rst classes for fi rst time home-buy- CPL African-American Librarian, ers, people who want to green up Vivian Gordon Harsh. She toured their homes, and those who want Chinatown Lozano Sulzer 2353 S. Wentworth Avenue, the world building the collection 1805 S. Loomis Street, 60608 4455 N. Lincoln Avenue, 60625 to learn to cook Polish food. The 60616 (312) 747-8013 of African-American literature and (312) 746-4329 (312) 744-7616 main library, Harold Washington, promoting her library. The library hosts the Poetry Festival and the Next time you're nursing a hang- is rich in community history and One of the awesomest-looking The Conrad Sulzer Regional Chicago Book Festival, and they over with some Dim Sum, drop in has served as a meeting place for libraries in Chicago. The build- Library is giant and has a great bring in big names for readings for a dose of culture by checking authors such as Arna Bontemps, ing has a pre-Columbian Olmec movie collection. They house the like Michael Chabon, Sherman out the Chinese Heritage Collec- Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine design, which surrounds the interior Chicago History Collection, and a Alexie, and Audrey Niffenegger. tion at the Chinatown branch. They Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Zora as well as the exterior. There are retrospective and bound magazine You can check out audio books have the largest concentration of Neale Hurston, Claude McKay and three public art pieces, and the and periodical collection, so you can online and movies and CDs, and Chinese Language Materials, so if Richard Wright. Hall Branch features branch is named in honor of Rudy check out that 1976 issue of Beading even free passes to any Chicago you speak Chinese, you're in luck. a reading garden and is a staple Lozano, community activist and Quarterly you've been after. museum. Most CPL libraries of the Bronzeville community. union organizer. They have a giant have permanent art collections Mexican Heritage Collection. or local history information. Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Avenue, 60625 Your libraries just give and give, Humboldt Park (312) 744-1933 1605 N. Troy Street, 60647 so get yourself a library card (312) 744-2244 and take advantage of them. They've got a great collection of Arabic Korean and Spanish lan- You can also get fi shing poles guage materials, but you can also here and skip on over to Hum- check out a fi shing pole at this boldt Park, where the Park District library. That's right. Take your pole stocks the pond with actual fi sh. on over to River Park and catch Water is pumped in from Lake something. It’s clean enough. Michigan. Eat at your own risk. READING & WRITING F NEWSMAGAZINE 21

Get your Lit on A guide to ongoing literary events in Chicago

Dollar $tore Reading Under thee the Hideout 1354 W. Wabanasia Infl uence (773) 227-4433 Sheffi eld’s dollarstoreshow.com 3258 N. Sheffi eld Ave The premise is simple enough. A (773) 281-4989 writer is given an item that was readingundertheinfl uence.com/ purchased from a dollar store. The The writers fuse original materiall writer then has a month to con- with excerpts from works by famousous struct a story that incorporates authors that revolve around a the item somehow. Maybe it’s on particular theme. Themes from pre-pre- display, maybe it’s a character in vious shows have included banneded the performance. Abusive drinking books, sex, and Chicago writers. is enthusiastically encouraged. There is also an interactive trivia game, with prizes! Quickies Innertown Pub Rec Room 1935 W Thomas St. Black Rock Bar (773) 235 9795 3614 n. Damen quickieschicago.blogspot.com (773) 348-4044 Each reader is given fi ve minutes recroomers.com to read a complete work of prose. Art, literature and performance aatt Must be a self-contained work of 8:00 p.m. the fi rst Wednesday off prose. Poetry and excerpts not each month. Zany, experimental welcome. They host two con- performance. They strive to cre- tests throughout the year. The ate a community of artists that is top 5-7 entries will be invited to conducive to experimentation, and read at a contest winners night. encourage altering familiar per- formance modes and methods.

THESHORTSHORTLIST

Started by SAIC BFAW student Jeni Crone in the fall of 2008, Creative Writing Guild has since published a themed literary journal twice a semester. Formed as an on-campus writers’ group and a way to share literature and literary events outside of class, The Guild publication organi- cally developed as a collection of writing from students and faculty from all departments. The Writing Guild is currently planning the release party of the November is- sue to coincide with a text-based exhibition at Siragusa Gallery in the State Street dorms. Copies are widely avail- able on the SAIC campus. CWGshare.blogspot.com

BY JENNIFER SWANN

DistributedDiistribuuted byy PPilsenilsen coconceptncept shop Golden Age, Motherwell A monthly art and comics zine started by SAIC stu- is devoted to critically investigating contemporary art and dents in 2007, Xerox Candy Bar is also a student culture through themed literary and critical essays. The fi rst group whose initiatives have included the Flaxicart leather-bound and hand-branded volume includes contribu- zine cart in the Flaxman library, neighborhood roof- tions by poet Zachary James Johnston and Los Angeles-based top concerts, and a compilation CD. Copies are avail- artist Karthik Pandian. On the Golden Age blog, Motherwell editor Paige K. Johnston names the journal’s goals: “one, to create a conversation-in-print between the works of emerg- ing writers, and two, to triumph the book (as a form) in its glorious tangibility.” The journal is not only available at able around the SAIC campus and around Chicago. Golden Age, but also in LA’s Ooga Booga Gallery and the Created in the spring of 2008 by three SAIC BFAW students, New York Art Book Fair. http://motherwelljournal.org/ In Preparation began as a publication featuring the poetry and prose of the authors, and evolved into a literary and art zine accepting submissions from both SAIC students and non-students. Currently co-edited by A. Martinez and Mark Schettler, In Preparation publishes all genres, including criti- The bi-annual student journal from University of Chi- cism and art, and is available at SAIC, Quimby’s, and other cago features essays on contemporary life. Named after Chicago locations. http://inpreparationzine.blogspot.com/ Promontory Point, a popular hang-out in Hyde Park, “The Point locates us geographically but also defi nes our mis- sion,” says U of C grad student Jon Baskin in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. So what’s the point? “Writing for anyone who is interested in ideas,” says Baskin in the Tribune. “Someone who’s interested in examining their life” is the ideal reader. http://www.thepointmag.com/

ART & CULTURE F NEWSMAGAZINE 23

Still image from “#37.” Image courtesy of Joost Rekveld. Electronic Evocations

BY BRANDON KOSTERS

An interview Drawing inspiration from Euclid’s electronic music. At some point connection to whatever academic writings about optics, electronic I realized that I like electronic research was conducted during with music, and abstract animation music, but I didn’t necessarily the conceptual development of the from the United States from want to make it.” piece. This is fi ne with Rekveld. multimedia the 1950s, the work of Dutch Rekveld now typically “It’s very easy to talk about multimedia artist Joost Rekveld commissions other composers to in technical terms, in terms of artist is hard to describe. Rekveld's provide the score for his fi lms. “The research and concepts that inform rigorous academic research and composer gets involved at a very it,” Rekveld says. “In the end Joost Rekveld preliminary structures result in an late stage … in the sound, they [though], what’s most important is ambient visual music, integrating address the same concepts which the sensual experience.” kinetic sculpture, soundscapes, inform the images.” As a scholar, and an artist, and abstract fi lm. They can be Still image from “23.2, Book of Mirrors.” Rekveld’s approach to working Rekveld is continually dealing appreciated even if the pieces with composers is based upon with the correlation between art themselves show little evidence of Image courtesy of Joost Rekveld. “fi nding a common approach.” and science. While he has worked what informed their creation. Rekveld chooses composers who directly with analog equipment On Thursday, October 8, “Often, technology is he can identify with so that he can and media, he has not shied 2009, Conversations at the relinquish control over the sound. away from digital formats. “All of Edge hosted “Book Of Mirrors: seen as this strange Rekveld is resistant to having his these technological or scientifi c Films by Joost Rekveld” at the work codifi ed by meaning. Indeed, developments … they are … a Gene Siskel Film Center, with alien thing invading when asked by one audience product of human culture. The Rekveld appearing in person. our lives, and yet it member at Conversations at the fi rst human is a monkey who The Amsterdam-based artist Edge what analogies he is making discovers a tool. Often, technology studied at the Hague, where he is also what defi nes between music and images, is seen as this strange alien thing currently serves as the head Rekveld dismissed such analogies invading our lives, and yet it is of the Interfaculty ArtSciences us as human. Part of as “totalitarian.” also what defi nes us as human. department. Among the His fi lm “#23.2, Book of Part of what I'm trying to do is numerous issues addressed what I’m trying to do Mirrors” is the only piece with humanize this thing, make the by the work shown at the Gene a “score” in the most traditional principles behind some of it Siskel are visual representations is humanize this thing, sense. It has been played three accessible to our senses and show of sound, historical explorations times with accompaniment from its poetic quality.” of perspective, and the role of make the principles be- a live ensemble. Rekveld has Through his work Rekveld technology in modern society, collaborated in the past with boldly challenges the idea that particularly in the context of art. hind some of it acces- theater and dance companies, “perception is a passive process. His fi lm “#23.2, Book of sible to our senses and producing images in real time using That you can sit still on you Mirrors” was, says Rekveld, computer software such as Jitter armchair and just make sense of “very inspired by the history of show its poetic quality.” and Max MXP. the world.” He references René optics, perspective, and medieval “Before, I made mechanical Descartes. “He (Descartes) had this approaches and explorations. It sculptures for other works too. machines to show images. I never one analogy of a blind person with was determined at the beginning of Some of these devices have really worked to make something a walking stick. The world does not the 17th Century that if light goes been exhibited as works of art in sturdy and versatile enough to just stream in for this person. He is through a very small hole you get themselves. For the past six years, perform in a live setting.” forced to reach into it.” interference patterns produced by he has also been working with While Rekveld’s fi lms “This,” asserts Rekveld, the light waves.” computer software to generate are lyrical and captivating by “is important when thinking To apply this principle to imagery. His most recent fi lm “#37” themselves, there is seldom a clear about perception.” a fi lm, Rekveld constructed a is a computer-driven inquiry into kaleidoscopic box with rails and the formation of crystals, made slits that he could manipulate, using the computer program Jitter, with fi lm on one side and a hole for which Rekveld then transferred to light to enter the box on the other. 35mm Cinemascope. “This allowed me to work with “I was triggered to make light oozing through [the box] abstract fi lms by Oskar Fischinger. directly onto the emulsion. I was Also, post-war American abstract interested in what kind of images fi lmmakers like James Whitney, it would produce [and whether Jordan Belson, and Stan Brahkage. or not] you’d get a sense of space The whole tradition of visual music that is different to the standard was very important to me.” perspective space that is inherent Explaining how he came to in standard optics.” Faint streaks visual music, Rekveld says, “My of light pulsate with accompanying focus was initially very much sound that textures the fi lm. electronic music. ...My dream was Rekveld builds kinetic to make my own fi lms and my own 24 F NEWSMAGAZINE ART & CULTURE

(above) Installation view of Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a short scenario, 2009. Photography © Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Photographer, Nathan Keay. (left) Liam Gillick, Rescinded Production, 2008. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Gift of Mary and Earle Ludgin by exchange. Photo courtesy of Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York. (right) Liam Gillick. Photo courtesy of Steff en Jagenburg. A Very Short Scenario Liam Gillick at the MCA BY BRYCE DWYER

A skateboard deck sits upside down retrospective of the British artist’s culled from Gillick’s past work in ironic recognition of the failure of the end of producing art objects in a waist-level display case with its work, on view at the Museum of much the same way as the display modernism.” Even if the sentiment were not necessarily mutually ex- wheels and trucks removed. A brief Contemporary Art until January 10. case. The fi nal set of walls frames expressed on the skateboard deck is clusive. This person, Allan Kaprow, message is written on the wood in It sits in a display case along with the activity of the people within it ironic, Gillick has actually aban- ended his essay “Education of aloof Helvetica lettering, “South- other ephemera related to Gillick’s as a speaker above blares a drum doned irony in favor of something the Un-Artist, Part I” (1971) with a bank Skatepark 1987. A perfectly various projects, all of them sharing loop claimed to resemble the beat of equally frustrating: opacity. This is- phrase, curiously enough, borrowed good skatepark improved by the a similarly slick design aesthetic, the Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control.” sue was also touched on during the and reworked from “The Commu- addition of an art collection…” visual equivalent of French vanilla. A number of classes here at the talk, regarding ways that relational nist Manifesto.” He writes, “Artists It’s doubtful that Southbank Skate Looking over the materials inside, School of the Art Institute have work like Gillick and Deller’s attempt of the world drop out! You have Park—the cavernous space beneath one might be frustrated by the col- been contacted by the MCA to as- to avoid what is characterized as nothing to lose but your profes- London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall that orful glare produced by colored pan- semble within this space and hold boorish didacticism. But in addition sions!” For Kaprow, dropping out has been used and transformed by els of plexi that have, for the course forth. Just how often these invited to the mere boredom didactic work means allowing the work one makes skateboarders since the 1970s— of the retrospective, temporarily groups will be using the sub-space is assumed to cause, Gillick harbors, to resonate in ways beyond art, ever had an art collection. Even replaced the standard opaque white is unclear. When they do, their in his words, “a kind of distrust of to enter into a closer relationship if it had, the statement still begs panels that typically diffuse light activities will unavoidably be on transparency.” In the talk he went with the practice of life. A relatively the question: How could an art through the gallery. These panels small number of artists, that might collection improve upon the vibrant stand out as the most visually strik- not even include Kaprow himself, and creative atmosphere of one of ing element of this installation with- “What incentive is there to give of oneself to have heeded this call. Even as the world’s most renowned skate out walls, fi lling one of the MCA’s Gillick sets this up as the structur- parks? To most people, the proposi- sizeable fi rst fl oor galleries. The a work that resolutely refuses to meet the ing concept of his generation, we tion likely seems ridiculous when display case is made from a matte should not expect him to drop out considered in the same sense that black plastic material of which a audience halfway?” either. Just as we cannot expect an the proposal is phrased in. Why number of slatted, cubicle-height art collection to improve South- put art in a place where it runs an walls that slice up and parcel out the bank Skate Park, we cannot expect elevated risk of damage or, perhaps exhibition space are also construct- display, because while the slatted on to say that transparency is too Gillick’s art to improve our lives so even worse, of being ignored? ed. One division encloses a space walls may delineate space, they often carted out as an empty signi- long as it obstinately withholds its This skateboard deck is “South- around the exhibition wall text, provide only a modicum of privacy. fi er, and because those who invoke ambitions from us at the same time bank Skatepark 1987” (2007), made another frames the display case. The question raised by Gillick’s it, like national governments, so it employs us to achieve them. by Liam Gillick for New York City’s Another set of these slatted walls, “Southbank Skatepark 1987” can be routinely disabuse it, the concept Printed Matter. The work is a part of which bear superfi cial resemblance boiled down, stated more sim- is apparently emptied of all value. the exhibition “Three Perspectives to both offi ce furniture and Minimal- ply, and used as a sort of guiding For a work of art that, as Gillick and a Short Scenario,” an uncon- ist sculpture, marks out a space criteria for experiencing the entire has also said, depends upon the venionally organized mid-career near a projection of images and text show. How does the introduction audience to complete it, the “dis- of art to life improve the quality trust of transparency” it manifests of either? The ironic statement is especially disheartening. What on the skateboard seems at odds incentive is there to give of oneself with some comments Gillick to a work that resolutely refuses recently made during a public to meet the audience halfway? discussion with curator Dominic Because of its willful opacity, Gil- Molon and artist Jeremy Deller— lick’s introduction of art to life—the whose “It Is What It Is” is across handing over of a small parcel of the hallway from Gillick’s show. museum space to certain groups— Often artists’ commentaries on fails to produce anything more than their own work should be taken a banal and benign art experience. with a grain of salt. If artists were During another part of the art- the fi nal authority on what they ist talk, Gillick drew a distinction produce, the viewer wouldn’t spend between the motivation of earlier as much time looking at and think- generations of the avant-garde ing about their art to reach their and what he presumes to be that own conclusions. Gillick, however, of his own generation. For the is a special case. An integral facet historical avant-garde, the task of his practice is the production of was to fi nd ways to keep making large quantities of text. Additionally, things “new” each time. For his from time to time he steps forward own generation, Gillick stated that to defend his work in print. So while the question is not who can keep another artist’s refl ections on his or making new things, but who will her own work might get dismissed actually stop making things fi rst. as a fl ight of fancy, Gillick’s are fair This statement reminded me of game. During the talk, he stated a fi gure from one of the historical clearly that his work “is not an avant-gardes for whom novelty and ART & CULTURE F NEWSMAGAZINE 25

Installation view of Jeremy Deller: “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2009. Photography © MCA, Chicago. Photographer, Nathan Keay War Talk Jeremy Deller at the MCA BY BETH CAPPER

This is the scene: A coffee table “experts” about the war for the The exhibition raises the ques- the public to come to them. lent?” Maybe, though, “It Is What is laden with “Middle Eastern” sake of the exhibition. To call tion as to who is at risk in the en- His decision to situate this It Is” doesn’t have such lofty cookies and an ornate silver Deller the artist of the work is gagement Deller initiates. There conversation in the white cube goals, and instead is simply about teapot. Paper plates and poly- a stretch. He’s more of a com- are participatory art projects that opens him up to criticism from saying, as the title goes, that the styrene cups are provided. munity organizer, or perhaps place the artist in the precarious the outset. Many artists work- situation in Iraq is what it is, and Flanking the table on all sides a facilitator of engagement. position; for example, Joseph ing in similar ways have forgone what it is has to be dealt with. are armchairs and sofas to sit These experts sit in the gallery, Beuys arguing about direct de- this context because it produces The exhibition creates a upon. The setting is supposed in three hour-long shifts, ready mocracy with crowds at Docu- a kind of forced or false engage- situation that individuals can to be as casual as a friend’s and willing to have unscripted menta 5, Yoko Ono asking audi- ment. The hope is that by placing orchestrate to their advantage. living room; the only minor dif- conversations with members of ence members to decide whether it in this context, the conversa- The MCA advertises which ference being that we’re in the the American public about their or not to remove small squares tion will provoke greater refl ec- participants speak each day, and Museum of Contemporary Art. experiences of the war. Objects of material from her body in “Cut tion from those involved. Deller the responsible citizen is thus A small crowd gathers; some and didactic materials meant able to do research in prepara- sit down, others stand. All eyes to spark discussion are located tion. The engagement lags if you are fi xed upon an Iraqi man with around the gallery, including “In Deller’s work it is often his participants ponder not the conversation you a name tag and a long ponytail. the remnants of a car destroyed are there to have, but whether Some onlookers ask questions, in an explosion in Bagdad that who undertake the risk.” this conversation can be con- but most don’t. One woman killed thirty eight people in 2007. sidered good art, or even art at dominates the conversation for There is something troubling all. In the end, perhaps Deller is a time with questions about the about the way in which this Piece,” or even Rirkrit Tiravanija not only humanizes the situation telling us that when it comes to Iran-Iraq War. The man calmly engagement is set up. From the cooking Thai food for hungry in Iraq for Americans who are having a meaningful conversa- and earnestly answers her ques- positioning of his participants New Yorkers out for a free lunch. assumed to have only a tangen- tion about the war in Iraq, what tions, going to great lengths to as experts right down to the However, in Deller’s work it is tial and mediated connection It Is is ultimately up to us. disclose as much as possible. snacks on the table—a gesture often his participants who under- to a war waged on their behalf, Just as the seated audience that, while ostensibly naïve, take the risk, demonstrated poi- but he does so in the context of awkwardly pour themselves can also be read as a troubling gnantly in his most famous work, the transcendent art experience. lukewarm tea and nibble on the emblem of the West’s commodi- “The Battle of Orgreave,” where However, does this strategy na- snacks provided, the Iraqi man fi cation of “other” cultures. miners and police involved in a ïvely put faith in the effectiveness sinks his teeth into a large choco- As far as experts go, Pasha has violent clash during the 1984 Min- of mere exposure? As theorist late chip Brownie from the MCA’s the right credentials. He worked ers Strike in England were asked Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick wrote in Pucks cafeteria. The cultural as a translator for the armed to reenact their experiences. her essay, “Paranoid Reading and commentary inscribed in this forces and press in Iraq, and he Deller, Pasha and Iraq War Reparative Reading,” “trust in ex- particular moment is priceless. also painted over the fi rst and veteran Jonathan Harvey un- posure seemingly depends ... on The man’s name is Esam Pasha, largest mural portrait of Sad- dertook a three-week road trip an infi nite reservoir of naïveté in and he is part of “It Is What It Is: dam Hussein when the leader with the remnants of the car in those who make up the audience Conversations About Iraq”; the was deposed in 2003, covering tow, stopping at cultural institu- for these unveilings. ...What is new blockbuster Jeremy Deller it with his own interpretation of tions and community centers the basis for assuming that it will exhibition at the MCA through the country’s history. But when in an attempt to incite dialogue surprise or disturb, never mind November 15. Pasha is one of a I ask him during the exhibi- about the war. “It Is What It Is” is motivate, anyone to learn that rotating cast of scholars, activ- tion how he feels about being a continuation of conversations a given social manifestation is ists, journalists and Iraqi nation- deemed an expert, he appears from this tour, but instead of go- artifi cial, self-contradictory, imita- als Deller has enlisted to act as a little uncomfortable with it. ing to the public, Deller is asking tive, phantasmatic, or even vio-

Anne Liebovitz’s loan lenders, Art Capital Group, are on her to pay back the $24 million loan they gave her. They recently gave her a reprieve from bankruptcy, but if negotiations fall apart, she may be faced with the choice to either fi le bankruptcy or lose the rights to her photographs and her homes. ART NEWS Homes? and who borrows that kind of money? Oh. She does... Some wack-jobs keep buying up Hitler’s paintings. Recently, three paintings sold for a total of $60,000 at Weidler’s auction house in Nuremberg, Germany. The deranged collectors purchased Hitler’s watercolor depictions of cottages, mills TICKER and churches shoved into rural landscapes—picture less-imaginative Normal Rockwell with a Viennese bent. The paintings are from around 1910 when Hitler was a struggling artist in Vienna at the wait, WHAT?... A portion of Polaroid’s collection of photographs is headed to the auction block this BY NATALIE EDWARDS — spring, angering many of the photographers responsible for their existence. Whether the company bought the photos or just the right to use them is unclear, but the bankruptcy judge overseeing the case says the artists have missed their chance to board the get-your-rights-back boat as it sails off into the slowly developing sunset. They should have spoken up before another company bought Polaroid’s assets in 2002... Someone out there in East L.A. jacked Richard Weisman’s collection of Andy Warhol’s paintings, which he commissioned himself in the ’70s. The collection includes ten silk-screened portraits of athletes and one of Weisman, who, I can only suppose, wishes he was an athlete. According to the “Art Loss Register,” Andy Warhol is one of the top ten stolen artists in the country, with over 200 Warhol works reportedly missing. Maybe Annie Liebovitz stole them to pay back her lenders. Nancy Spero, SAIC alum, prominent feminist artist, and outspoken anti-Vietnam and Iraqi War activist, passed away at the age of 83. She will be missed. 26 F NEWSMAGAZINE ART & CULTURE

(above) Installation view of Jeremy Deller: “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2009. Photography © MCA, Chi- cago. Photographer, Nathan Keay. (below) Digital photograph of Shabandar Café, Baghdad, ND. Courtesy Salon.com. An Interview with Esam Pasha The idea of being at risk didn’t resonate with Esam Pasha when I interviewed him a week later. On the contrary, he was earnest and positive about his involvement in Deller’s exhibition. On a side note, while my recorded interview with him is fas- cinating, it never quite materialized into a fully fl uid conversation. The constructed situation of an interview seemed to create the same barriers for engagement as the physical space of the gallery had for me a week prior. However, once the tape was off , my questions about the war started fl owing. In the end, perhaps I had the kind of engagement Deller had intended after all. Continued from —Beth Capper “War Talk” p. 25 With the mural I tried not to focus on a particular political What has been the difference between doing this in the EP agenda, but instead I wanted people to pay attention and to BC context of the gallery and that of more public space? remember how beautiful our country is and that the important thing is to rebuild it, and not to argue which view or agenda is right. Who- In the museum people came here to listen. They don’t usually ever gives people electricity right now is the one that I am going to EP ask and argue as much as people outside. Of course there are a work with. That’s what I wanted to convey to people, and I think that’s lot of interesting questions and stories inside the museum, but people what most Iraqis right now are thinking about. They think about their expect more to follow the pattern of a conference. Out on the street basic needs, which haven’t been met actually since the fi rst Gulf War. it was more of a back and forth discussion, though in the museum they really created a nice and friendly setting with a couch and Do you see yourself returning to live in Iraq? seats. Just as though you are sitting in the cafeteria of the museum. BC

Why is it important for you to be a part of this exhibition? If there is a need for me to be there in any useful BC EPway. America is my home now absolutely: Right now it’s better for me to stay here but if I could make a real dif- It’s my chance to talk to people, many many people, and ference in Iraq, then I would defi nitely be there. EP see and fi nd out what they are thinking and what ques- tions are on their minds. It helps me to advertise and talk How has taking part in this exhibition affected you? about my country—the place where I was born, grew up and BC lived all my life—and correct some misconceptions for people about it, and satisfy people’s curiosity for knowledge. It has made me more patient. There are points that when I used EP to talk before I understood my audience as though they were Have you found that there are com- Iraqis. I have learned that I have to explain in a better way so that BC mon misconceptions or questions? the Americans can understand. Now I don’t expect them to know that much about Iraq so I try to explain almost everything in detail. I feel happy that there are many people that want to know about Yes. There are some common thoughts about Iraq that the Iraqi war and most of them are neutral and open to listening. EP aren’t true. Many people believe that women are op- pressed in Iraq, and this is not the case. More than that, there Do you think they should come with knowledge? are a lot of things that people don’t know about Iraq. For ex- BC ample, they don’t know or haven’t thought really that Iraq is a tax-free country. Free education and free healthcare is a right in For myself, I want to give the experience of an average Iraqi Iraq. It’s one of the freedoms that you don’t fi nd in many places. EPwho lived there. How did I manage to live, what I thought about, what the people that I was talking to in Iraq—what issues concerned In Iraq you worked as a translator. I understand us the most. I fi nd that most people who come here—that is what BC this is a very precarious position to be in. they really want to know about. You can read a book with specifi c statistics, numbers and everything, but what people are more inter- More dangerous than working as a translator for the army was ested in is the human factor and the human experience, and what EPworking as a translator for the press, and also as a freelance people felt. That is easy for me to convey. If it makes sense to me then journalist. That was really dangerous, to be out in the street and it will make sense to other people who are average like myself. talk to so many people with no one to protect you. To work with the American forces, that is an interesting experience. I also wanted to see how people received the soldiers and what questions people had for the soldiers; but the problem is that you are the one talking to people, and their requests or whatever they are asking for, if they don’t get it, they blame you. You’re the good guy if you get them what they want, and the bad guy if what they want doesn’t happen. This work made me see from the inside and very closely how the Americans dealt with people and how people dealt with the Ameri- cans. That has really enhanced my understanding of the situation.

You have spoken, in relation to painting over BC the Saddam Hussein mural, about the need to use art to build a more positive future for Iraq. ART AND CULTURE F NEWSMAGAZINE 27 FILMS FOR ALL SEASONS

Chicago revisits Hollis Frampton’s lesser-known works

BY TOM MCCORMACK Caption for the picture Photo by Such

The multi-venue retrospective of Hollis Frampton coming to Chicago offers a chance to take another look at a body of work too often reduced to a couple of fi lms. Frampton is known mainly for his lapidary works “Zorns Lemma” and “(nostalgia).” The fi rst is a dizzyingly dense medi- Untitled portrait of Hollis Frampton, 1977. Photo by Marion Faller © 2007 Estate of Hollis Frampton tation on the process of aging and the relationship between language and experience. The second appears to be a charming “Birth of Magellan” at Chicago lukewarm by what they saw.” remembrance of a photographer’s “Frampton’s Filmmakers on December 12; Some of Frampton’s frustra- youth, but through a sleight of and “Fragments from Magellan” tion can be felt in a letter he hand on the soundtrack turns Magellan project is at Doc Films at the University wrote to Donald Richie, who into a maddening brainteaser that of Chicago on January 23. proposed to Frampton an un- challenges the viewer’s own abil- based on a belief that From a curatorial perspective, compensated retrospective of ity to remember. The two fi lms are the most interesting series in his work at MoMA. After needling Frampton’s most approachable, we live within, and the program is “Frampton and Richie about his inability to and also his two works that most Friends,” playing at Block Cin- work without money, Frampton readily fi t into the critical histo- are surrounded by ema on November 13. The show jumps on the suggestion that he ries of avant-garde fi lm. Yet, they groups together a series of Framp- come to New York for a Q&A. are by no means his only works, images, that they ton’s early fi lms, and one later “Are you suggesting that I and perhaps not even his best. one, based not on their formal drive down? The distance is Frampton began his artistic life compose our cultural properties, but on the fact that well over four hundred miles, as a poet, but by his own account all of them deal in some way with and March weather upstate was not a very good one. After memories and issues of collaboration and friend- is uncertain. Shall I fl y, at my fl irting with painting, he turned to ship. “Manual of Arms” and “Arti- own expense, to face an audi- photography. His early photo- construct our fi cial Light” are both portraits of ence that I know, from per- graphs were often imitations of Frampton’s friends; while “A and B sonal experience, to be, at best, and elaborations upon the still daily lives.” in Ontario” is a collaboration with largely unengaging, and at worst life work of Edward Weston. fellow fi lmmaker Joyce Wieland. grossly provincial and rude?” His fi lms got him tagged by P. Similarly, “Snowblind” enters into If Frampton found his audi- Adams Sitney, as a “structural from the point of view of the a dialog with Wieland’s ex-hus- ences to be, at times, grossly fi lmmaker”—that is, a fi lmmaker photographic apparatus itself. band and Frampton’s close friend provincial and rude, Jenkins whose work moved away from Another imagines a group of Michael Snow, who is also fea- makes a compelling argument the lyrical abstraction of people early photographs emerging from tured prominently in “(nostalgia).” that this disconnect was due to like Stan Brakhage, and towards the lost continent of Atlantis. Both “SOLARIUMAGELANI” and Frampton being too ahead of his a more minimalist aesthetic that In one essay Frampton defi nes “Frampton and Friends” were or- time. Jenkins sees “Magellan” in drew attention to the internal the term “x” as “suffering” and ganized by, and will be introduced particular as “imagining forward, logic and formal properties of attempts to write equations that by, SAIC professor Bruce Jenkins. and exceeding current technolo- the work; the materiality of the express the account of suffer- I talked with Jenkins about Framp- gies.” To start with, the idea of fi lm strip; the extreme formal ing by various writers. Gertrude ton’s life and legacy, and why a cycle of very short fi lms that possibilities of editing; and the Stein is “x=x,” while Rudyard there’s renewed interest in his would play on every day of the experience of a fi lm’s duration. Kipling is “x=c-b/a.” Frampton work (in addition to the forthcom- year is unwieldy, to say the least, While Sitney never limits his notes, though, that Stein could ing Chicago screenings, Anthology within the bounds of the classic own readings of Frampton’s work also be expressed as “x-x=0,” Film Archives recently restored theater-going experience. But in to the structural guidelines he laid that is, “anything diminished his crypto-autobiographical series the age of the Internet the idea out, his labeling has nonetheless by something of its own mag- “Hapax Legomena,” which will begins to seem prescient. In fact, limited subsequent readings of nitude amounts to nothing.” screen at Doc Films on January 22, the “Magellan” project is based Frampton’s fi lms by others, and Before his premature death in and MIT Press recently released a on a belief that we live within is perhaps partly responsible for 1984, Frampton was working on a book of his critical writings, “On and are surrounded by images, the lack of interest in Frampton’s series of fi lms called “Magellan.” the Camera Arts and Consecutive that they compose our cultural early and later periods, both of The plan was to have a cycle of Matters,” edited by Bruce Jenkins. memories and construct our which will be showcased in the shorts (approximately 1000) that Jenkins said that for a long time daily lives, and as an artistic proj- upcoming screenings in Chicago. would play on every day of the there was so little writing about ect it is an attempt to orchestrate In addition to being a fi lmmaker, year (or, more precisely, within a Frampton that “notes people had for an audience member a daily Frampton was also a very singular 365-day cycle), and would chart, scribbled on the back of napkins environment of images, as much writer. The very defi nition of a metaphorically and symbolically, became canonical texts that as construct a regular fi lm. “Who polymath, he was also an arch- the journey of the explorer Ferdi- would appear in catalogs.” Be- would have thought that we’d ironist, and his playful criticism nand Magellan. Rarely screened, cause he worked in fi lm in an era live in an age when we are liter- manages to be both recondite the completed sections the when the art-world had only a ten- ally surrounded by moving im- and good-naturedly humorous. “Magellan” cycle will be the focus tative relationship to the medium, ages?” Jenkins said as he pointed Frampton shed a lucid light on of the Chicago retrospective. “Frampton felt the sting of being a to his desktop, where he believes his subjects, while at the same “SOLARIUMAGELANI,” a program sort of second-class citizen.” And that one day the completed sec- time pushing art criticism into of three of the longer fi lms from while his middle period of work tions of the “Magellan” cycle will the realm of Borgesian play and the cycle, played at Conversa- gathered some acclaim, when be available for viewing on their speculative fi ction. One essay tions at the Edge on October 15. he began work on “Magellan,” appropriate days of the year. narrates a series of photographs Upcoming is a program entitled “even those close to him were left 28 F NEWSMAGAZINE ART & CULTURE

Bizot Birds of a feather

BY KATIE FAHEY Illustration by April Behnke

With the Olympic hope extin- (which includes 60 museums) is far Greece and the British Museum over Mr. Cuno, who has written passion- guished, Chicago’s cultural elites broader than it once was. At its foun- the Parthenon Marbles. ately on the subject of international may have sustained a blow to their dation it included a small number of British Museum President Neil trade in antiquities, responded by egos, but they have another reason select members, their mission only MacGregor, who has been Chair- lamenting the requirements of some to be humming this October: Bizot, to discuss exhibitions and loans. man of Bizot in recent years, has museums for additional insurance a gathering of directors and presi- Asked if Bizot had any plans admitted that a declaration issued and couriers “who fl y business class dents from the most prestigious to diversify its membership, AIC by the group just following this when it’s not necessary,” a practice art museums and galleries of the President Jim Cuno responded, period of intense debate over the which he says pushes further costs Western world. “Bizot is very interested in adding Marbles was a direct reaction to the onto the borrower. Bizot, the insiders’ moniker for Asian museums to its membership. dispute. The declaration was neatly He continued, “Different museums “Bizot is composed the International Group of Organiz- The trouble is most Asian (Japa- non-committal, arguing for the ideal require different environmental ers of Large-scale Exhibitions, is a nese, Korean, and Chinese) [have] of the “universal museum,” support- conditions for their loans...[i.e.] of museums that exclusive institution which takes non-museum professional, political ive of non-ownership and sharing humidity and temperature. Given its name from founder Irène Bizot, appointees without the same sets among nations over repatriation or utility costs and the impact of hail solely from the a French Countess and the former of responsibilities we have. Finding deaccession. Signed by at least 30 energy usage on the environment, head of the Réunion des Musées comparable museum directors is members of Bizot, it served to sup- we’d like to fi nd a consistently appli- Western world, a fact Nationaux. Among this session’s the challenge.” port MacGregor without explicitly cable, more responsible agreement attendees were: the Metropolitan However, this diversity in con- denying Greece’s demands, marking on environmental conditions.” often masked by the Museum of Art’s director Thomas versation is yet to be refl ected with “the signifi cance of Greek sculpture Also discussed was what muse- Campbell; the Victoria and Albert regard to Bizot membership. Of for mankind as a whole and its ums can do to work toward being group’s enigmatic Museum’s director Mark Jones; the primary concern in the planning for enduring value for the contempo- greener in their operations. Just pri- Centre Pompidou’s director Alfred this Bizot was the procurement of rary world.” Former Metropolitan or to this October’s conference Bi- profi le but one that Pacquement; and the Tate’s director two French-English interpreters, a Museum of Art President Phillippe zot formally accepted several “Guid- Sir Nicholas Serota. testament to the group’s immutable de Montebello refl ected that the ing Principles to Reduce Museums’ has made itself Discussions at the session ranged French foundations. In addition, Bizot declaration issued had been a Carbon Footprints” which were from the practical and local to the is composed of museums that hail “European initiative” which he was established by the National Muse- apparent in the past.” lofty and global. Some issues on the solely from the Western world, a fact happy to support. ums Directors’ Conference (NMDC) agenda were the the fi nancial crisis, often masked by the group’s enig- On more pragmatic matters, Bizot at their most recent meeting. One cost-effectiveness and streamlining matic profi le but one that has made remained true to its roots this Octo- such guideline included the goal of loan agreements, and even the itself apparent in the past. Specifi - ber, deliberating over the intricacies of fi nding low energy solutions to museums’ role in U.S-Arab and Ira- cally, implications of Bizot’s make-up of standardizing loan processes. preserving collections, mentioning nian relations. Certainly, the scope emerged during the height of the When asked what the most important that museums need not necessarily of discussion at Bizot conferences repatriation controversy between topic discussed at this session was, utilize air conditioners to do so. COMICS F NEWSMAGAZINE 29 30 F NEWSMAGAZINE COMICS

Nolan MacGregor CHICAGO’S NEW LITERARY COMMUNITY Join Fnewsmagazine and the School of the Art Institute’s MFA Writing Dept for a roundtable discussion about Chicago’s burgeoning new literary community, featuring novelist Kyle Beachy, playwright Chris Bower, blogger Jac Jemc, Associate editor of the Journal of Ordinary Thought and Assistant Director of the Neighborhood Writing Alliance Mairead Case, Quickies! founder Lindsay Hunter and Featherproof books founder Zach Dodson, and moderated by MFAW Department head Sara Levine.

The Sullivan Gallery, 33 S. State, 7th Floor, November 11 from 4:30-6 pm FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Photo by Nidhi Isaac