Takeover The Hyde Park Art Center

April 24 – June 11, 2006

Curated by Allison Peters

Lead Sponsor:

5020 SOUTH CORNELL, CHICAGO, IL 60615 TEL. 773.324.5520 WWW.HYDEPARKART.ORG

COVER: Random Sky, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Mark Hereld, and Rick Gribenas 2 » 3

Floor 1

S. Short S. Short S. Short S. Short

M.W. Burns A. Wilson/ M.W. Burns M.W. Burns D. Bishop S. Keeler Goat Island S. Decker

J. Fish J. DeGolier J. Roberts J. Roberts D. Wang D. Wang C. Jones B. Foch A. Kunz P. McGee C. Alvarez J. Livingstone K.J. Marshall A. Nereim N. Levy J. Reeder D. Akpem A. Mers B. Foch J. Dunning J.A. Chávez N. Levy A. Demers J. Ledgerwood B. Nicholson M.R. Schwartz J.A. Chávez J. Fish J. Fish K. Rosen J. Hashimato Industry of D. Frid the Ordinary M. Gallay D. Wang A. Ruttan P. Helguera L. Davis I. Manglano-Ovalle/ S. Wolniak K. Reimer M. Hereld/ R. Gribenos N 4833rph (Art Resource Center) 4 » 5

Allison Peters Director of Exhibitions

“Art is a state of encounter.” — Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics

Exploration teaches us to learn ums, university galleries and cultural show large-scale digital artworks, to asked to assume control of the build- the world at large. tive thoughts on the building being through traversing boundaries and institutions that successfully com- be viewed from the street as well as ing as a medium for an artwork or For 68 years, the mission of the Art completed on time. The cohesive going where we haven’t gone before. plete their respective missions to col- the gallery floor. series of artworks. Artists were invit- Center has been to stimulate and teamwork of the Hyde Park Art With the earth as populated as it is lect and preserve culture and do not Increasing in size from a 7,000 ed to correspond, utilize or decon- sustain the visual arts in Chicago. By Center staff made the exhibition run today, territorial exploration isn’t need duplication. This new facility square foot space to a 32,000 square struct the Art Center both by physi- strengthening networks between as smoothly as possible under the what it used to be. Instead, we look had to provide the art community foot space, the Art Center is now a cally employing the materials of the artists and the community in addition leadership of Chuck Thurow. to our immediate surroundings to with something fresh. Local architect, museum-sized institution that incor- building or conceptually by address- to artists from Chicago and around Additionally, Christopher Hammes encounter new ways of understand- Doug Garofalo was selected to porates a studio art school and a ing the mission behind the institu- the world, the Art Center continues and Philip Nadasdy made art installa- ing the world around us. Since mod- design a building that would high- kunsthalle personality with decidedly tion. In actuality, the artists were only to provide the necessary local, tion look easy, while the Garofalo ernism, art has emphasized the need light accessibility between artists and no art collection to maintain or given the floor plans and a prelimi- national and international platform to Architects, Doug Garofalo and for us to temporarily exit the com- the public, transparency of the exhibit. Most importantly, the Art nary walk-thru of the building while help artists develop their practice in Andrew Schachman kindly fielded forts of what we think we know and process of art making and exhibiting, Center contradicts the notion of a under construction. Due to construc- Chicago with a state-of-the-art venue countless questions for installation sets up an experience—mental, emo- and encourage experimentation with museum as a mausoleum that safely tion delays, artists were unable to like no other. without complaint. I am grateful to tional, and/or physical—that directly technology and concepts. preserves accepted constructs of art see the building completed until after Jason Pickleman, Dan Marsden and effect, and simultaneously isolate, Incorporating the original brick struc- and culture and instead is an institu- the exhibition had opened. For many Acknowledgements: photographer Joeff Davis for pulling the individual. Adversely, art also has ture of the former army warehouse tion as a conduit for expression, reac- of the artists, this situation tested together the postcards and (finally) the ability to connect people and building owned by the University of tion and creation of the here and their strengths and forced them to In the spirit of transparency, an exhi- the catalogue for such a momentous grow creative communities. The state Chicago, Garofalo inserted large now via the visual arts. This ideologi- approach their work in a different bition like Takeover does not happen occasion. A special thank you goes of encounter that Bourriaud writes glass windows both inside and out- cal structure aims to question how manner causing an unbelievable and without the hard work and valuable to the students at the School of the about is dependent upon an element side of the building to provide vistas art is exhibited and experiments with gratifying learning experience once support of many groups and individ- Art Institute for producing the educa- of surprise, participation and human that facilitate an encounter between alternative definitions of what art is all was said and done. The state- uals. To begin, it would have been tional brochure: Jennifer Dominiak, interaction. The Hyde Park Art Center all kinds of Art Center users, from and how it reflects the culture in ments describing the artworks in this impossible to produce this exhibition Lisa Junkin, Carol Ng, Junko Sano. has been a space for all of the above students, artists, teachers, parents, progress, and at times, in decline. catalogue have been provided by the without the support of the Sara Lee And last but certainly not least, to all since its inception in 1939, however, it staff and visitors. There are several The Art Center creates a social space artists in effort to preserve their indi- Foundation, The Andy Warhol of the artists—you persevered and never had the architecture to support other features of the building, like 5 where systems of exchange are inter- vidual voice in such a full exhibition Foundation for the Visual Arts, ploughed through the restraints and its sensibility until now. metal garage-style doors that open personal and not economic – the Artists were selected based on two Robert Wislow and U.S. Equities, Inc. hazards of construction to make your In 2000, the Hyde Park Art up to the main gallery from the side- profit comes in the form of building qualities: a proven ability to success- and the hundreds of Art Center contribution to the exhibition the Center’s Board of Directors and the walk, and a circulating hallway sys- interpersonal relationships – which fully produce interesting projects donors and friends. Additionally, best possible. It was a true pleasure Executive Director, Chuck Thurow, set tem that aids discovery. The signa- proposes a unique and challenging responding to a location or an attrac- under the council of a first-rate to work with you and I look forward out to find a building that would ture feature is a 10 x 80 foot glass position in a commercially dominated tion toward the challenge of making Exhibition Committee led by to working with you more in the embody a new type of contemporary façade that functions as an exhibition art world. architecture a relevant part of their Chairwoman, Pat Swanson, the list of years to come. art institution – one that serves as an space named The Jackman In the long tradition of the non-tra- practice. From emerging to estab- invited artists excelled in ability, tal- incubator for collaboration between Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery. This ditional role of the Art Center, the lished careers, Takeover showcased ent and patience. The Hyde Park Art the public, students, artists, the gallery is outfitted with a system of inaugural exhibition of the building, the widespread talent in Chicago and Center Board, especially the Board architecture and the administration. high range projectors, computers, titled Takeover, presented thirty-nine the endowment of Chicago-rooted Chair, Deone Jackman and Honorary Chicago has many high quality muse- scrims and screens used primarily to new artworks by forty-six artists artists that now inhabit and influence Chair, Ruth Horwich, always had posi- 6 » 7

Pat Swanson Judy E. Schaefer Chair, Exhibitions Committee Director, Sara Lee Foundation

THE HYDE PARK ART Art Center—it could be inside, out- The Sara Lee Foundation is pleased CENTER’S Exhibitions Committee side, upstairs, downstairs, on the to partner with the Hyde Park Art floor, on the ceilings, in the rafters. Center (HPAC) as the Lead Sponsor is structured to provide honest feed- These intrepid artists agreed to cre- of Takeover, which featured new back on proposals as well as ideas ate work in this environment. Against work by emerging and established and suggestions. This committee enormous uncertainties, including artists as the inaugural exhibit in searches, debates, agrees, disagrees, making decisions about space while HPAC's new facility. and advises. We include Art Center the space was under construction The much needed move to a new board members and community and facing shifting time lines, these building with modern amenities, larg- members. All of us have opinions artists have created works that are er spaces and additional community about contemporary art and each of varied, unexpected, and simply resources is important, but it is the us is an artist, educator, curator, or remarkable. This exhibition is a real reaffirmation of HPAC's continual administrator. Several of us are all of testament to the creativity, verve, focus on diverse artists with Chicago those. Our meetings are always stim- and nerve of Chicago artists. roots that clearly resonated with ulating, but not always well organ- Sara Lee. ized or characterized by linear delib- Sara Lee Corporation and the Sara erations. Lee Foundation support arts and cul- Takeover, therefore, seems like a tural programs as investments in thrilling and logical outcome for this helping make the communities in committee and its approach. We which our employees live and work think that art should be everywhere, diverse, vibrant and livable. We con- not just on pristine white walls. Art gratulate HPAC on its successful can be in the exotic and in the ordi- move, providing additional cultural nary. Art can be any medium that an enrichment activities for this south artist wants. We wanted some art side community, and we celebrate that people can’t miss and some that our lead sponsorship of Takeover. is so subtle that one must look repeatedly to see it. We sent invita- tions to many artists to create work in this spirit for the new Hyde Park

Super Space Riff: An Ode to Mae Denenge Akpem (b. 1972, Mkar, Nigeria) they inhabit contain a whiff—or more—of Keywords: P-Funk, Fela, The Jetsons, John space. ancient code Jemison and Octavia Butler in is a space sculptor and performance danger even as they seduce. Her work Waters, Afro-Futurism, Curtis Mayfield, bell traveler. morse-sss artist whose works combine science fic- has been exhibited at the Urban Institute hooks, Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler, Ray walking.flying.swimming.floating.sensing.go. letters sent from afar VIII Stanzas tion with religious and/or historical for Contemporary Arts, MI, and the Bradbury, Lorraine Hansberry, Vogue Interiors something about her. tap tap tappity tap tap 2006 archetypes into hybrid creatures whose Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. (UK Version), 1,001 Home Decorating Ideas, “bea-u-ti-fu-l” code Installation and performance presence and actions offer subversive Denenge holds an MFA from The School lemon yellow, nawa-o... “h-o-m-e” tele cable wire Dimension variable critiques of race stereotypes, gender of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004) she said, looking backward to "E-A-R-T-H" less constructions, and "the norm." The and a BA from Smith College (1997). In 1996, Dr. Mae Jemison became the first (we say "Laluna Orbital Attachment" or, Black Astronaut (and of course the first Black LOA).stop. DNA of the Black: meticulously arranged environments www.denenge.com Female Astronaut) in Space.1 Super Space Riff: Ladies sing, repeat with increasing speed: An Ode to Mae Jemison in VIII Stanzas put II. "what is black, white, brown, yellow, red, olive, Akpem's Hybrid Being face-to-face (mind-to- we avoid that mysterious atmosphere--she fair, dark, blue, pasty" mind) with the real-deal Mae Jemison. calls it “home” :surrounded by bits of floating metal and DNA of the Female: While some of us kids in the mid-80s were sit- clouds Others sing, repeat low & slow: ting around watching "Greatest American remnants of exploration "what is female, male, he-she, she-he, not one, Hero", Mae was beginning her training with metal excrement.stop. not either but all...what is female, male, he-she, NASA...and the rest is history... (I collect the bits and find them useful.) she-he, not one, not either but all of the above...what is..." "Believe it or not, I'm walking on air/I never thought I could feel so free-ee-eee/ III. DNA of the Mathematically-Inclined Flyin' away on a wing and a prayer/Who could She gazed at EARTH... Ladies sing, high tones, crisp: Denenge Akpem 2 it be?/Believe it or not, it's just me." with love GEOMETRY SPACE FORM ACTUALIZATION with love.stop. DNA of the scientifically-inclined Cue story: A Being of a distant galaxy has BIOLOGY HISTORY GENEALOGY found a relic from 1992. Her thoughts are we saw her from our perch transmitted as she moves about her other- (we have memories.stop. DNA of the Focused: Sci-fi backdrop for worldly home... telepathy with machines of the likely to be okay with Solitude, Super Space Riff brain waves send message-streams.stop. Weightlessness, 1 Mae was born in Alabama but her family soon static image=relic) Sleeplessness, moved to Chicago, settling in Woodlawn where Her name transmitted in blips.stop. Endless Day, she went to public school. She holds degrees Night, from the top universities in the nation as well IV. Darkness, as numerous honorary PhDs; is a medical doc- yes? hello? Distance, tor; and runs successful companies that apply Isolation, her space knowledge to help developing coun- V. Adventure, tries move ahead in sustainable and technolog- (what is language?) Discovery, ically beneficial ways. the last telegram was sent yesterday.stop. Desire sound seduction 2 Sung in 1981 by Joey Scarbury as theme song clay cuneiform tablets traveled bearing the DNA of a mover-and-shaker for "Greatest American Hero" T.V. show imprint of a lover's finger.stop. DNA of the gap-bridger this braille body will tell secrets DNA of the savior --that means: my skin can only be read by your DNA of the teacher I. hand.stop. DNA of the one who will make a change Code: 229435000721 DNA of the caring Intergalactic Transmission Translation VI. DNA of the responsible Date: 2006AD/50th year Mae Jemison (who holds From: Afri-Sci-Fi‰Anthromorph‰ power?) Eleggua, God of Crossroads Planet Address: /||+)||\ |. (or, A3) :to affect the future LIVE!!! :to create in one's own image (ensure domi- XXXX-traterestrial !!!!! You Are Here: nance). stop. some components of a good home: knowledge?) 987654321 raw earth rug :of science chlorophyll :of math NOW purple rain :of politics curtain of clouds :of DNA (SILENCE.) canopy nakedness VII. VIII. figurines (who controls the future? who will that future SOLO: the color brown reflect?) (what's in a name?) clean things covert XXXXX-ism: a rose by any other...tzttzzz.stop. dirty things ignorance? godliness superiority? M-A-E--J-E-M-I-S-O-N.go hairballs progressive? mae pulsing heart breath accountable? mae gas responsibility?

experience is a portal plantar warts experience trumps intellect stop. Chant by Choir, low, background: homage to Endeavor the ONE who appeared in the sky flesh machine, sex power & immortality one day long ago long ago conquer take possess galaxy zone \\||00+ziltokes’’\ ,.stop. wound humiliate discard we saw....a resemblance. stop. body flesh meat death oh great. mind machine black. intelligence & memory female. extension of consciousness

Photograph courtesy of Brooke Hummer

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Candida Alvarez

INITIALLY, THE SCENT of the In order to get detail, I scanned my the creative process gets activated. It Sunbeam closed building that was to become saved photo images of the wall and can go deep into our subconscious 2006 the future home of the Hyde Park Art its clippings. I noticed a huge ad, as it strains to be present in the Wall painting Center permeated around me when I which was promoting a subscription moment. I can now see myself at PS1 75 1/2 x 76 inches first visited the site in late August of to the Chicago Tribune with a gift in Long Island City during the years 2005. I felt like a blind person, trying item from the Sunbeam Company. 1978-79, trying to understand Alan to touch or smell or sense something Since it was the largest font, and had Sarat’s Brick Wall and Sun (1976). I the most unusual typeface, it stood was an artist in what was then called familiar and the nagging stillness that Candida Alvarez (b. 1955, Puerto Rico) out immediately. As I scrutinized the the International Artist Program. presented itself in that initial glance moved to Brooklyn, NY in the late would not leave me alone. The fol- series of events that lived through Sunbeam can be seen as a parody, 1950s. Her art aims at inclusiveness; per- lowing January, I returned looking for me and the rawness of this building, I but used painting in a conceptual sonal and cultural symbols, narratives, a wall that was painted with sickly realized that I also needed to hold way to cut through all the skins of everyday artifacts, abstraction and rep- onto the sense of smell, even if it was memory. It is the light of day that is resentation coexist in her multi-paneled hospital green paint and covered compositions. She studied at Fordham with yellowing sheets of newspapers metaphorical. the only constant. Having recently returned from vis- University, earning a BA in 1977, and from the Chicago Tribune dating as Skowhegan School of Painting and iting the mountains of Puerto Rico, I far back as Thursday, December 5, Sculpture in 1981. Alvarez has had solo 1950. A stairwell has now replaced it. craved the smell of warm, moist exhibitions at the TBA Exhibition Space, I did not miss that wall until it was earth. That juxtaposed itself with the Chicago; New Britain Museum of gone, because it displayed human smell of the old building skin being American Art, New Britain, CT; Kenyon shed for the new skin. Instantly the College, Gambier, OH; The Bronx evidence of sorting and gathering. It Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; The became a resting place, of sorts, and image of a landscape painting came to mind. I would paint it a third time, Queens Museum, Flushing, NY; The could provide a hook from which to First World, New York, NY, and Galerie rename it, and brand it with a word hang my creative hat. It reminded me Schneiderei, Cologne, Germany. of my studio walls, a few of which are that I could lift from what is now a www.candidaalvarez.com covered with clippings, photos and memory wall. So Buena Vista (a great notes of all sorts. I make paintings view) now becomes Sunbeam, and is that borrow from the commotion of projected onto the shadow body of this display to become something the fictitious plane that flies over the unpredictable—in the process, I can fantasy island. lose myself. It is curious and mysterious how Study for Sunbeam, 2006, colored pencil on tracing paper, 12 x 12 inches. 12 » 13

Damon Bishop

CHICAGO, IL (AP) — On October Bloody Night of Ghostly Terror 31st of 2005 an aspiring young film- 2006 maker and amateur paranormal Video projection researcher disappeared from a South 5 x 9 feet Side Chicago construction site. It is likely that Damon Bishop, 31, entered the site with the intention of docu- menting some strange occurrences Damon Bishop (b. 1974, New Haven, CT) that had been transpiring at the site grew up in a small fishing village and of the Hyde Park Art Center's new spent a large portion of his childhood location. On the morning of watching monster movies and playing November 1st, Mr. Bishop was with his large group of imaginary nowhere to be found—a fact that friends. After studying sculpture at the doesn't seem to worry his friends. Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Bishop settled in Chicago, "That guy disappears a lot," said one Illinois. He has been making films for associate who has asked not to be the past ten years. They have shown the named. "One time he was gone for world over- from Lausanne, Switzerland like two weeks; turns out he was just to Bogotá, Columbia. In 2005, he won lost in a mall. Not even a big mall. It the Mom D’ Or award from the Hi Mom! was like a food court and a J.C. Film Festival in Chapel Hill, N.C. Penny." www.hydeparkart.org/alist/profile/bish- op_damon Found at the construction site were a few of Mr. Bishop's personal items including several cameras, a Dolly Parton biography, and a Ouija board. As the months have passed the hopes of finding Damon Bishop alive have begun to dwindle. Anyone with any information is encouraged to call the authorities. 14 » 15

MW Burns

RECENT AUDIO installations by Audience MW Burns have integrated pre- 2006 recorded sounds into existing envi- Sound installation ronments to alter the perception of events taking place. Audience occu- pied a space in a 2nd Fl. studio with the sound of spectators. Shifting M.W. Burns (1958, Stamford, CT) is a Chicago-based audio artist who uses from uncontrollable laughter, then sound to conceptually activate space. jeering and a variety of emotions in Many of his audio installations rely on between, the several channel sound tactics of public address, projecting the work invited Art Center visitors to voice into existing sites of human activi- visualize and imagine the mysterious ty, while other work uses the evocative activity occuring behind the studio’s power of sound to resituate our sense of locked doors. It was not a field place. Burns has had solo exhibitions at the TBA Exhibition Space, Chicago; recording of an actual audience, but Northern Illinois University Art Museum; one built from individual recordings Tough, Chicago and the Lab, San of the artist playing each of the many Francisco. His sound installations have characters heard. been included in numerous group exhi- bitions, including the 2000 Whitney Biennial, NY; Contextual: Art and Text in Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, IL; Time Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and The Body at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, IL. Related projects also include Sound Canopy, a public sound system supporting audio work created to participate in the urban environment of downtown Chicago, a program pro- duced by the Hyde Park Art Center.

Efflorescence Program. There he learned the fundamental Art and The Mexican Fine Art Center 2006 theories and techniques of mural painting Museum. Nationally and abroad, his work Baby monitors, light bulbs, pipes, and and sculpture. Chávez developed his pro- has recently been exhibited at venues in home-made speakers fessional experience by painting murals in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Burlington (VT) Chicago neighborhoods and schools as a and Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2001 he was 3 floors; dimensions variable member of the Chicago Public Art Group, recognized with the prestigious Richard H. where he is now a Senior Artist. His public Driehaus Individual Artist Award. and private commissions include works for www.juanangelchavez.com the Toman Branch Library, Chicago; the Juan Angel Chávez (b. 1971, Chihuahua, Whipple Home, Lake Forest, IL; the Mexico) immigrated with his family to Chicago Park District; the Chicago Transit Chicago when he was thirteen and, while in Authority (CTA); the Chicago Sun-Times, high school, attended The School of the and many others. He has exhibited work in Art Institute of Chicago's Early College Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary

Juan Angel Chávez

MY GENERAL INTERESTS lay in the visual effects of uncon- trolled circumstances, the growth of natural elements onto urban environ- ments and the ambiance that sur- rounds them. I like mulberry stains on side- walks, accident marks, moss growing under bridges, street marking mishaps, normal wear and tear, oils stains, illegal Detail of the sculpture on the second dumping sites and the sounds of floor with baby monitor. people working and living around them. The piece was conceived with the same idea in mind but focusing on the specificity of its location. It was Juan Angel Chávez (b. 1971, Chihuahua, inspired by how efflorescence hap- Mexico) immigrated with his family to pens: moisture travels through brick, Chicago when he was thirteen and, stone and concrete pulling the while in high school, attended The water-soluble salt out onto the sur- School of the Art Institute of Chicago's face. I wanted to recreate the similar Early College Program. There he learned movement of moisture but using the fundamental theories and tech- niques of mural painting and sculpture. the specific sounds produced by the Chavez developed his professional ephemera and permanence of the Art experience by painting murals in Center’s new building and its envi- Chicago neighborhoods and schools as ronment. Efflorescence consisted of a member of the Chicago Public Art two wall relief sculptures, situated Group, where he is now a Senior Artist. along the same vertical axis of the His public and private commissions now building—the stairwell—but on sepa- include works for the Toman Branch Library, Chicago; the Whipple Home, rate floors. Both sculptures contained a baby monitor inside it that chan- neled sound from a third monitor that was temporarily installed on the rooftop of the Art Center. The ambi- ent murmur of the street was fused into a serpentine motion that enters and pulls the sounds of wind, rain, cars and foot traffic with the sounds of function.

Ratio (Monks and Mica Caves) Laura Davis (b. 1971, Holland, MI) is a from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1996. Chicago-based installation and sculptural Her work has been exhibited extensively 2006 artist. Davis’ art stretches the idea of the across the United States including, Dairy Mixed media installation found object by recontextualizing materi- Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO; Gallery Dimensions variable als such as vintage necklaces, fabrics and 312, Chicago, IL; the Smart Museum of Art, pillar candles and incorporating them into Chicago, IL; Urban Institute of Contemporary her work. She received an MFA from the Art, Grand Rapids, MI, and the College Art University of Chicago in 2004 and a BFA Gallery, SUNY, New Paltz, NY.

Laura Davis

NATIVE MOSTLY to Argentina As homage to these birds and their and Brazil, the feral Monk (or Quaker) genius for adapting to our harsh cli- parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) mate (along Lakeshore Drive no less) that reside in Chicago’s Hyde Park I created a portrait of them using a neighborhood have long been a ratio of materials and simple organic curiosity of the area. My first structural systems. The proportional encounter with these birds was also relationship here figuratively refers to my first visit to the Hyde Park Art the degrees of cultivation exempli- Center several years ago. A friend fied by comparing these soft sculp- pointed them out to me flying high ture parrots to the actual Hyde Park over their many nests in the adjacent parrots and pet parrots to the par- Washington Park as we walked rots of the wild. The birds were made through the park. The nests are huge by tying triangles of felt into two complex structures made from twigs knots and the nest by machine stitch- woven into the crux of tree branches. ing vinyl triangles onto organic geo- The birds were flashes of green high desic dome forms. Artist’s proposal sketch up in the trees. I remember the I felt a certainty in installing Ratio weather that day as being extremely (Monks and Mica Caves) in the south- grey and blustery contrasting with east corner of the new Hyde Park Art the tropical green of the parakeets. Center—leaving the old HPAC loca- A nest can contain from 1 to 6 tion, cutting through the park, and nesting pairs on average, each with a up the stairs to the new. separate compartment and entrance hole. According to research done at the University of Chicago, parakeets were first spotted in Hyde Park in 1973. Records show that by 1979 they were successfully nesting and breed- ing in the area. (http://www.monkparakeet.com/jmso uth/)

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Jeff DeGolier

“The spaces form the artists, who in turn form their ideas about art and their ways of making art.” — Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space

Regarding this sentiment (speaking complacent character in society, that it, and hold on tightly to any idealism Threescape with Luxury Background specifically of 13th century Tuscany) he or she is generally frustrated with that mingles with the lint in our pock- 2005-2006 Lefebvre states: "Luxurious spending the state of the world. Therefore, it is ets. 19 Digital c-prints on dibond on the construction of palaces and no longer enough to point in this So we, as artists, build our own Dimensions variable monuments gave artists, and primari- vague direction for explanation of worlds (sometimes quite literally) so ly painters, a chance to express, after our work, or to reference it generally that we may “discover” something their own fashion, what was happen- as a source. So what are we to do? like the perspective of Lefebvre’s ing, to display what they perceived. Our generation is floundering in a artists all over again—not to reinvent These artists 'discovered' perspective vague “blah” of desperation, help- it, but to make sense of our worlds Jeff DeGolier (b. 1974 Bellingham, WA) and developed the theory of it..." lessness in the presence of the high- via the reconstruction of it. We are to works in a variety of media, particularly photography and sculpture. Much of his Lefebvre’s analysis of the interplay tech, removal from the tactile, and build our environments—or rebuild work to date incorporates found mechani- between urban/rural development frustration with the ugly, corporate- them—as the platonic ideal/idea of cal parts and building materials to con- and artistic production results in a driven trajectory of the western land- them exists in our heads: the idea of struct miniature gritty landscapes, which rather idealistic view—that the artist scape. We cannot see the kind of a building, of an automobile, of pollu- he manipulates for his photographs and will find the sense in the planning, sense that Lefebvre’s Tuscan artists tion, of a tree, or of the amalgama- sometimes shows as kinetic sculptures. He the cohesiveness of it, and reinvest in of the 13th century did in our land- tion of two or more of these things received an MFA Degree from the the ideas of the planners via his or scape. Although many ponder our together. Unlike the artists Lefebvre University of Illinois in Chicago. DeGolier’s work has been exhibited at Gallery 400, her own work. But what happens WAL*MART littered landscape in awe, refers to, we are not "to display what Chicago, IL; Howard House, LLC, Seattle, when much of what we see is a mess; it is an awe full of dread, full of night- [we] perceive..." but to build what we WA; New Museum of Contemporary Art, when the social responsibility of our marish visions of “progress” that no perceive out of samples from the New York, NY; Soil Gallery, Seattle, WA; planners seems either anemic, or longer come equipped with utopian concrete world, perceive what we Great Space, and University of Illinois at altogether missing? Assuming (albeit hopefulness. And what’s worse is that have built, and display what we per- Chicago, Chicago, IL. He currently lives rather naively) that all-out “pure” we appear to be stuck where we are. ceive in it. and works in Brooklyn, NY. abstraction is not an option, there Money, as it has been doing for cen- www.jeffdegolier.com needs to be a way of interpreting our turies, rules the world. What sets our world in a way that is sincere, hope- time apart from others, however, is One of the photographs in the Threescape series containing ful, and even beautiful. that it seems to be doing so much debris from the construction site of the Hyde Park Art Center. Much of our contemporary world is more thoroughly, and with little nonsensical and frustrating, lacking in regard for “quality.” In spite of all beauty and efficiency. It is a broadly these frustrations, we must deal with accepted idea that the artist is a non- what we are given, make the best of

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Andrea DeMers

THIS PIECE embodied concepts of waiting room. Improvising on site in DECONSTRUCTION / openness, adaptability and change. the unfinished building meant work- RECONSTRUCTION My idea involved dissecting the floor ing along side construction workers (Dissection / Resurrection) plan and construction blueprints for amidst dust, debris, and commotion 2006 the new HPAC and reconfiguring the in a constant state of flux. Removed Chart tape, color coded labels, fragments into a wall drawing/col- from the solitude of my studio, it was Letraset, contact paper, and lage in which the fixedness and a very public situation where certain markers on wall impenetrability of architecture gave days brought dozens of visitors 8 x 15 feet way to a winding, shifting, migrating streaming through the space. The web of circuitous detail. Within it, lin- combination of frustration and exhil- ear elements dissolved into pattern aration I experienced contributed to the exuberant energy of the piece, or collapsed into floating fragments. Andrea DeMers (b. 1958, Washington Conversely, sections of interior space and forged a direct connection to the D.C.) is a Chicago-based artist whose solidified into silhouettes of animat- unwieldy yet buoyant world that is intricate mixed media drawings borrow ed characters and shapes. The ensu- the focus of my work. fragments from diagrammed systems ing fracas resembled a playful and as varied as flow charts, mechanical convoluted flow chart alluding to the blueprints, aerial views of highway clover-leafs, and amusement park inevitable glitches and complications maps. Accumulated graphic informa- inherent in the process of planning tion is woven into convoluted networks and building the Art Center. The dis- that reference urban sprawl, maze-like connect that occurs when plans, technology, and the overbooked itiner- aspirations, and expectations collided aries inherent in contemporary with the unpredictability of real life lifestyles. DeMers studied at The School was brought to the fore. of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA, Detail: 2000) and the University of Wisconsin, DECONSTRUCTION / RECONSTRUCTION I chose the location of the office Madison (BFA, 1980). Her work has reception area as a tribute to the been exhibited at Carl Hammer Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center staff and to Chicago, IL; Gallery 400, Chicago, IL, emphasize the necessity for viewing and the Museum of Modern Fine Art, the piece over time, as offered by a Minsk, Belarus. Monument Jeanne Dunning (b. 1960, Granby, CT) Biennale in 1996, and the Venice Biennale 2006 explores our relationship to our own physi- in 1995. She has had solo shows at the Archival inkjet print cality by looking at the strange and unfa- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, miliar in the body and in our notions of Washington D.C.; Museum of Contemporary 65 x 44 inches gender and normality. Her photographic, Art, Chicago, IL; Konstmuseet, Malmö, sculptural and video work has been shown Sweden, and the Berkeley Art Museum, CA. extensively throughout the United States Dunning lives and works in Chicago and is and Europe since the mid-1980s. It has a professor in the Department of Art been included in group exhibitions such as Theory and Practice at Northwestern the 1991 Whitney Biennial, the Sydney University.

Jeanne Dunning

THE PHOTOGRAPH was in effect a proposal for a monument, but it did not specify to what. As a giant and gilded “thumbs up,” it might have been a monument to positivity for our times. As an abstracted but phal- lic body part, it might have been be a grandiose and very public obscene gesture. At certain key moments in its early years, the Hyde Park Art Center dis- tinguished itself by supporting work that thumbed its nose at both good taste and good behavior. Making a gesture alluding to the Center’s past, the monument was appropriate to the celebration of its future. t y of the artis es ourt C 26 » 27

Julia Fish

Trio in red yellow blue, with varia- were visible. To begin, the viewer [score for] Trio in red INSPIRED BY the musical form tions for fifty-nine steps / seven generated a multiple set of variations yellow blue, with varia- itself, Trio in red yellow blue, with flights / three stairways at 5020 within any one of the three staircas- tions for fifty-nine variations for fifty-nine steps / seven South Cornell Avenue es, and then completed the Trio by steps / seven flights / flights / three stairways at 5020 2006 following the assigned color nota- three stairways at South Cornell Avenue offered a set of Oil enamel on aluminum tions in the other two stairways to 5020 South Cornell color notations as a score. Each step Dimensions variable structured time, while the attached realize an extended set of variations. Avenue linear markings proposed directional 2006 movement within the three stairways. Colored pencil on graph paper Julia Fish (b. 1950, Toledo, Oregon) has Two enclosed stairwells at the north lived and worked in Chicago since 1985. 3 and south of the building—organized 23 /4 x 18 inches She received a BFA degree from Pacific in two and three flights of twenty- Northwest College of Art in 1976, and an MFA degree from the College of Art, Detail of north stairwell two and seventeen steps, respective- ly—stand in contrast to an open stair- Maryland Institute in 1982. Her paintings and drawings have been included in way arranged as two flights of twen- curated exhibitions at the Museum of ty steps, positioned in the central Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; San reception hall. Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Trio in red yellow blue could be Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, understood in either of two modes: IL; Chicago Cultural Center, IL; MAK (a) the viewer performed the score Center for Art and Architecture / (deliberately, or inadvertently) in Schindler House, Los Angeles, CA, and the Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlinische active, physical terms when ascend- Galerie, Berlin, Germany, among many ing or descending the three sets of others. Her work has been presented in stairs, guided by the changing twenty solo exhibitions since 1980, and sequence and frequency of red, yel- was the subject of a ten-year survey low and blue; (b) alternatively, Trio exhibition at The Renaissance Society at invited a purely visual “sight reading” the University of Chicago, IL in 1996. of each stairway from landings or Fish is a professor of Studio Arts in the Detail of south stairwell School of Art and Design, College of other vantage points where the lines Courtesy of the artist Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago. www.hydeparkart.org/alist/profile/fish_ julia 28 » 29

Ben Foch

WHEN I WAS approached to make best it could be. However, its weight the only accuracy an art viewing pub- Remnant as Object/ History as I - IV Sherman; Monroe; Panzer; a site-responsive work for Takeover was always present and came to lic will have access to. To do this, I Fiction Bardot, from the Roller Painting and first encountered Hyde Park Art embody the center as such. had the “restoration” professionally 2006 series Center’s new home at 5020 S. Cornell, With this most recent expansion, photographed and its printed repro- Lambda print; 1 of 3 2006 I knew immediately what had to be this aspect merely became further duction exhibited in the new space. 20 x 30 inches Acrylic on canvas; series of 4 done. What struck me was the shift in repressed. To future generations it My practice rests in the distance this 2 x 12 feet scope, both physically and internally. may even appear to have vanished as mediation imposes and its operation The “site” that presented itself to me if it had never been. History becomes within a construct of history. was not physical but rather historical. accessible only through the present. The contrast between Hyde Park Art The sentiment of the ballroom will Ben Foch (b. 1977, Park Forest, IL) uti- Center’s prior and emerging identity exist in documentation and the sub- lizes a formal approach rooted in paint- presented me with the content I want- jective memory of a lingering audi- ing and sculpture to generate his con- ed to engage. ence. This was the site where my con- ceptual based works. He often employs readymade functional objects to explore The Art Center’s exhibition space in cerns as an artist presented them- selves. the nature of material, of representa- the old ballroom at 5307 S. Hyde Park tion, and of the ideological underpin- The repression of the vaulted décor Blvd. has always been mutually nings these objects embody. Foch imposing, both they upon the space was literally executed in paint being received a BFA from The School of the and the space upon them. Over the covered in white. I have always Art Institute of Chicago in 1999, and years a relationship developed to thought of this as a monochromatic, continues his studio practice in Chicago. form one unifying experience that has site-specific installation without an His work has been exhibited in Chicago venues including The Mansion, become a uniquely defining charac- author. My proposal for Takeover was to first “restore” a section of the ceil- ArtLedge, The Butcher Shop, and teristic of the Hyde Park Art Center. Vonzweck, in addition to the Art Spot in ing. As opposed to an actual restora- Looming over the exhibition space Atlanta, GA. hung the remnant of a previous era: a tion, I wanted to use paint and various Beaux Arts decorative relief, both faux and decorative techniques to beautiful and neglected. The disrepair stress the layers of artifice revealing of the space’s history was covered the fictive quality of history. I sought with the white cube aspirations of its to present an idealized memory of the current employment and forgotten as old space in the new space, where the documentation will become perhaps 30 » 31

Dianna Frid Mark Gallay

OUR PROJECT consisted of two knew what our starting point was, That the stars and men return in Dianna Frid (b. Mexico City, Mexico) is pairs of components that we called and had a sense of direction. We cycles both a two-dimensional and three- dimensional artist who creates fabric “iterations.” They are sculptural and were interested in playing in the 2006 space with visual forms that evoked Cloth, thread, laser heat transfers, montages, artist books and drawings. they have sound. We called our work Frid’s work focuses on aspects of place iterations because each component inter-subjective meaning through the ink, mylar, and sound as suggested by mapping, architecture had at least one earlier configuration, contemplation of things and the Dimensions variable and elements of geography. She if not more, and thus originated from sound-works we made. received a BFA from The School of the an earlier visual and/or aural experi- Art Institute of Chicago in 1991, and her ence. We also named our collabora- BA from Hampshire College in 1988. Her work has been exhibited internationally tion “Call and Response”. One of us at galleries including, Optica, Montreal, put out the call, either with a visual Quebec; G2, Chicago, IL; St. Mary’s or a sound work, and the other College, Notre Dame, IN; Gallery 312, responded. Chicago, IL; Pittsburgh Center for the We developed a working model for Arts, PA; Centro Nacional de las Artes, the first call: the labyrinths. The Mexico City, Mexico, and CROXHAPOX, labyrinths are composed of isolated Gent, Belgium. www.hydeparkart.org/alist/profile/frid_ rooms taken from museum floor dianna plans, and were transferred to cloth and reconfigured in a labyrinthine Mark Gallay (b. 1972, New York, NY) iteration. Speakers were placed at received a BA from Vassar College in 1994 and an MFA from the School of the the nodal points. The labyrinths sat Art Institute of Chicago in May 2006. on a camouflaged background. His work has recently been shown at The wall work used architectural SubCity Projects (w/ Dianna Frid), Lisa floor plans of specific sites to talk Boyle Gallery (w/ Brian Getnick), about many themes including the Contemporary Arts Workshop (w/ Noe garden labyrinth. Kidder), Chicago Filmmakers (w/ Jim Our approach to this particular col- Trainor), Mess Hall, Heaven Gallery, and PAC/EDGE Festival. laborative space was fluid and inter- pretive. We were like nomads: we 32 » 33

Goat Island

Daynightly They re-school you The Bears-Polka, 50th and Cornell Intermix, a double film by Goat Island 2006 Video projection 10 minutes Image courtesy of the artist IN 1853, Paul Cornell, New York comedy. After a substantial lawyer, Chicago real estate developer 2004/2005 tour, Lin Hixson (Goat and watch factory owner, purchased Island director) and Lucy Baldwyn Goat Island is a Chicago-based collabo- 300 acres of property about 5 1/2 (Goat Island associate member) worked to distill the performance rative performance group. From 1987 to miles south of the downtown core. 2006 Goat Island has produced collabo- He named the community Hyde Park into 9 minutes and 30 seconds, the rative performance works developed by after the one in London and the safe length within a roll of 16mm film, its members for local, national, and street Cornell after himself. A year and to split that duration in two. The international audiences. They perform a before Paul Cornell died, Joseph idea was to construct two films that personal vocabulary of movement, both Cornell (no relation) was born in New screened simultaneously on opposite dance-like and pedestrian, that often makes extreme physical demands on the York. He spent his artistic life assem- gallery walls, to balance movement and stillness as a single interwoven performers and attention demands on bling found images and ideas into the audience. They incorporate histori- sculptures and films around themes experience for a viewer positioned in cal and contemporary issues through of travel and caged birds. the space between the screens. The text and movement. Core members are The Hyde Park Art Center was result, Daynightly They re-school you Karen Christopher, Matthew Goulish, Lin established in 1939, and has respond- The Bears-Polka, a double film by Hixson (Director), Mark Jeffery, Bryan ed ever since to its surroundings. In Goat Island, premiered at the Betty Saner, and Litó Walkey. Associate mem- bers are Cynthia Ashby, Lucy Cash (for- 1973, a pair of South American Monk Rymer Gallery at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in November merly Lucy Baldwyn), CJ Mitchell, Judd Parakeets, their monastic name Morrissey, Margaret Nelson and Chantal derived from their hood of green 2005. Our contribution to the Hyde Zakari. Characteristically Goat Island feathers, nested in Hyde Park. They Park Art Center’s Takeover exhibition attempts to establish a spatial relation- adapted to the neighborhood and responds to the T intersection street ship with audiences, other than the have grown into a vibrant community names of the new location: 50th & usual proscenium theater situation, of more than 200. Cornell. We have chosen to treat our which may suggest a concept such as sporting arena or parade ground, or The collaborative performance own film as found footage and inter- mix it with monk parakeet imagery to may create a setting for which there is group Goat Island was founded in no everyday comparison. The company Chicago in 1987. In 2004, in London, create something equal parts origi- has toured the US, England, Scotland, we premiered our eighth perform- nal, found, and “Cornellian” for the Wales, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia, ance work, When will the September resonant crossroads of the new Hyde Germany, and Canada. roses bloom? Last night was only a Park Art Center. www.goatislandperformance.org

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Jacob Hashimoto

WHEN I FIRST graduated from excited about the possibility of White Plumes – Superabundant The School of the Art Institute of bringing what I’m still calling “my Variation Chicago, Ray Yoshida asked me to kite work” back to the Hyde Park Art 2005-2006 participate in a show that he was Center. White Plumes – Wood, stainless steel, silk, nylon, organizing for the Hyde Park Art Superabundant Variation was the lat- and acrylic Center. It was the first time I had est of these. It was a series of sculp- Dimensions variable publicly exhibited any of my work tural columns that run from the ceil- outside of school and I took the ing to the floor of the Art Center’s opportunity to show a piece that I largest new gallery space. The sculp- worked on and worried over much of tural columns were comprised of Jacob Hashimoto (b. 1973, Greeley, CO) my senior year. The piece, comprised numerous elliptical kite elements that is a site-specific installation artist who creates large sculptural forms out of of 365 little kites was entitled have been chained together using black nylon string. The chains of handmade paper kites that convey a Perennial. I remember arriving nerv- sense of wonder and playfulness. ously from Ravenswood via the “L” white, silk and bamboo kites were Hashimoto received a BFA from The and the Jeffery 6 bus with a card- stretched between floor and ceiling School of the Art Institute of Chicago board box stuffed with little 5 inch mounted hardware in an off-set grid and currently splits his time between diamond shaped kites, 3 rolls of pattern, creating visually solid, struc- living and working in Brooklyn, NY and Grandma’s Best crochet thread, 100 turally porous columns. These Verona, Italy. He has exhibited his work across the US and abroad including feet of galvanized steel wire, two eye columns were arranged in a grid, allowing visitors to walk into the Chicago Cultural Center, IL; Hyde Park hooks, and a turnbuckle. Two long Art Center; Museum of Contemporary days and 365 knots later I finished piece, thereby surrounding and Art, Chicago, IL; Rice University Art installing my sculpture, a 40 foot cur- immersing themselves in a billowing Gallery, Houston, TX; Los Angeles tain of black crochet thread with lit- sculptural environment. County Museum of Art, CA, and Studio tle kites anchoring each strand to the La Citta, Verona, Italy. floor. It was and is one of my favorite pieces. So, when I was approached about building a sculpture for the new building’s inaugural exhibition, I was

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Pablo Helguera

ON THE STORMY NIGHT of Streeter is seen historically as a The characters in the We Are All We Are All Streeter July 10, 1886, in Chicago, a man Chicago eccentric, but I rather see Streeter performance on April 29, 2006 named George Wellington “Cap” him as an essential Chicagoan, and 2006 included: Panel discussion and video Streeter ran his 35-ton steamship moreover, as a metaphor of the spirit 45 minutes aground on a sandbar near Michigan of the ultimate Chicago artist. We All Pablo Helguera, a lecturer Image courtesy of the artist Avenue. Unable to dislodge the ves- Are Streeter is a work in the form of Encarnacion Teruel, the moderator sel, he turned it into a home. Slowly, a panel discussion about Chicago Scott Vehill, art critic from Peoria landfill connected the steamship to eccentrics, the way in which the city Sharon Stein, a Peoria artist and arts of Chicago exerts a strange love administrator Pablo Helguera (b.1971, Mexico City) is a the city and Streeter laid claim to the multi-disciplinary artist living and work- 168 acres. Since the downtown clean- attraction, and the means by which ing in New York. He studied at the up after the Great Fire in 1871, Lake we uneasily assert our own identity National School of Visual Arts in Mexico, Michigan had been used as a dump according to the place where we are University of Barcelona and at The by building contractors. Streeter located. Like Streeter, many of us School of the Art Institute of Chicago invited such contractors to dump haphazardly landed in Chicago and where he obtained a BFA degree in 1993. He has exhibited or performed at their waste on the sandbar where the then developed our relationship with the city—and to an extent, our identi- the Brooklyn Museum, New York; vessel sat, and he and his wife com- Shedhalle, Zurich; P.S.1 Contemporary menced housekeeping. The Streeters ty—on this chance encounter by fate. Art Center, New York; Institute fur saw themselves as homesteaders; Are places only neutral sites to which Austellung, Bonn; Tokyo Metropolitan Chicago city officials considered we lay claim in a desperate attempt Art Museum, Tokyo; Museo del Barrio, them squatters. Thus began forty to get a sense of identity and mean- New York; Bronx Museum; Smack years of legal battles. In 1889, ing in our lives? Are we defined just Mellon, Brooklyn; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Streeter and his common-law wife, as much as by where we are than where we want or do not want to be? Hagen; Museum of Latin American Art Maria, moved into a larger ship which of Buenos Aires, and Pittsburgh Center had run aground in the District and for the Arts, PA, amongst others. named it The Castle. After clashes www.panamericanismo.org with the local police and battles in court, he was finally evicted. But he continued to lay claim to the area known as Streeterville until his death in 1921.

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Industry of the Ordinary

INDUSTRY OF THE branded each pancake with a mes- Factory Floor ORDINARY occupied many spaces sage before it was served. The final 2006 project included walking the streets Residency/performance installation within the Hyde Park Art Center that of Hyde Park to ask members of the are not primarily dedicated to the public “What makes a country presentation of art objects. Through great?” All responses were recorded the creation of objects and gestures and a selection of answers can be of their own, and with the help of heard on the artists’ website. Industry of the Ordinary was formed in volunteer workers, Industry of the January 2003. The two artists who Ordinary held a residency throughout make up this collaborative team, Adam the weekends of May 2006. For Brooks and Mathew Wilson, have long example, on the gala opening night, histories as visual and performative Industry of the Ordinary performed artists. They bring complementary sen- sibilities to their activities. Their proj- Epilation, which included shearing a ects exist in temporal terms but have fur coat worn by an elegant model as also been conceived to function on the she walked around the black tie ben- web site associated with the collabora- efit event. The residual material was tion. Through sculpture, text, photogra- handed to the crowd in glassine phy, video and performance, Industry of envelopes. In Attaining the Summit, the Ordinary is dedicated to an explo- an expedition was organized to climb ration and celebration of the customary, the everyday, and the usual. Their the chimney that towers above the emphasis is on challenging pejorative building. Industry of the Ordinary notions of the ordinary and, in doing so, had no mountaineering experience moving beyond the quotidian. and is terrified of heights. They www.industryoftheordinary.com therefore invited professionals with appropriate experience and courage to help coordinate their effort. The artists also performed Batter II, serv- ing a pancake breakfast for an assembled crowd of hundreds and Courtesy of the artists

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Chuck Jones

ONE TIME, I was down in Hyde A video of dogs running, with the Park at the old place and the person video being named after two behind the security desk wouldn't let Motörhead songs: “The Chase is me bring in my dog. Now, Frank (my Better than the Catch” and “You dog) is a good guy and he had been Better Run.” there a number of times before and 2006 he was on a leash, so I didn't see DVD what the problem was. That person 3 minutes not letting me bring my dog into the Image Courtesy of the artist Hyde Park Art Center was the old Chicago: The city that doesn't care what you say because “that dog isn't coming in here while I'm on Chuck Jones (b. 1970, Bethesda, duty.” I've been in Chicago long Maryland) is a sculptor who now mostly enough to know where I can bring makes video, although he considers all media consumables up for grabs. He is my dog. interested in how systems of public He walks into Paper Source, into address warp the dynamics of social Menards, and into Facets Multimedia power and respect. Jones received an where he knows exactly where to lay MFA from the School of Art and Design down while I pick thru the documen- at the University of Illinois, Chicago in taries. 1997. His work has been included in the He can go into Quimby's and into following group exhibitions: Coma #1, COMA, Chicago, 2006; Voiceovers, Los Uncle Fun, although he blocks the Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los aisles. Now in the new digs, the new Angeles, CA, 2005; Dang It Feels Good Hyde Park Art Center, part of the to Be a Gangster, Your Art Here, new Chicago, Frank will have room Indianapolis, IN, 2004; Fine Words, to move. I hope that everything Butter, No Cabbage, Hyde Park Art works out well for everybody. Center, Chicago, IL, 2004; and Apartment Series #3, Mattress Factory, Installation view Pittsburgh, PA, 2004. www.babygorilla.com

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Stuart Keeler

Bullseye 2006-2007 A green roof consists of soil and foliage on a human-made structure THE CITY is my studio space where a 26 x 36 feet hybrid language of architecture and Collaboration with Weston Solutions, sculptural practices replaces the con- Inc., Greengrid Green Roof System and ventional static definition of “place”. Midwest Groundcovers Bullseye is a simultaneous paint-by- numbers, experienced from above and below; a bird’s-eye view of concentric circles expands forward to camouflage Stuart Keeler (b. 1968, Vancouver, a steadfast floor plan. It is a living work Canada) is a Chicago-based independ- ent curator and artist. He works inter- that will continue to grow and redefine disciplinary and collaboratively in the the texture of the built world. Social public realm with ephemeral studio structures in the creation of the work works and conceptual interventions. linger forward through the active par- He finds humor in the everyday and ticipation of production and caretaking loves the examination of paradigms as a of the piece. Architecture is not a unit hobby. He received an MFA from The of sole control; an amalgam of collabo- School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Sculptural Practices and Critical and ration expands my vision for the per- Visual Studies. Currently, he is an sonal realization of a memorable built adjunct faculty in the interdisciplinary world. I am committed to continually arts department at Columbia College, expanding my practice with a multi-dis- Chicago and the self-appointed Artist- ciplined conversation with industry, sci- in-Residence of the 44th and 46th ence and the infinite varieties of archi- Ward, Chicago. His accolades include tecture. Co-existence redefines “sus- being selected to curate the Contemporary Art Council’s 2007 exhi- tainability” as our physical experiences bition, a nomination for the Robert are redefined through multiple social Motherwell Foundation Award, and an platforms in the space of the city. Artist-in-Residence at Pilchuck Glass This work will be on extended loan to School. He has shown his work in exhibi- Artist’s proposal sketch the Art Center through autumn 2007. tion spaces across Chicago and interna- tionally including Gallery 400, Chicago, IL and the International Media Biennale, Warsaw Poland. www.keeler-machnic.com 44 » 45

Anna Kunz

MY SITE-SPECIFIC piece in the Arrangement for the Foyer foyer of the new Hyde Park Art 2006 Center related to my ongoing inter- Wall painting, mixed media, painting ests in process, natural forms, and on panel color. I thought about the meaning 10 x 15 x 3 feet (approx.) and function of a foyer, as it is a “decompression” space, the spot of first and last impression, a meeting place and a threshold. Anna Kunz (b. 1972, Cleveland, OH) is a I used one of my paintings as a Chicago-based painter and installation starting point, and built the work artist. Through the process of painting, with a series of made and found ele- Kunz examines relationships between the object and the subject, the ambigu- ments, coming off of the floor, and ous with the metaphorical, and the out from the wall. “real” with illusion. Kunz received an I visualized my ideas for the piece MFA in 2000 from Northwestern through the use of a small model that University and a BFA from The School I built of the foyer, but the process of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently lead to improvisation when I actually she is an instructor in the drawing and got into the space to make the piece. painting departments at Northwestern University and the Art Institute of I ultimately worked with the light of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited the foyer, and any elements that I locally and nationally at spaces includ- couldn’t identify in the architectural ing I Space Gallery, Chicago, IL; The drawings. The work was intended to Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, be welcoming and celebratory. IL; Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL; Modern Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio, TX. www.hydeparkart.org/alist/profile/kunz _anna

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Judy Ledgerwood

MY PAINTINGS emerge squarely create form as opposed to the idea Chromatic Patterns from a tradition of Modernist, grid- of decoration operating merely as 2006 based abstraction. In this tradition, a superficial ornament as a further Wall painting grid parallel to the picture plane is challenge to Modernist conventions. 9 x 19 feet the chief organizing principle. The The organizational structure and grid is an ideal that represents order, more precisely the color in my paint- regularity and predictability. The ings, encourages visual experiences artists who exemplify this tradition that question the ideal represented Judy Ledgerwood (b. 1959, Brazil, IN) such as Barnet Newman, Mark by the grid. Furthermore, the experi- lives and works in Chicago. In her Rothko, and Ad Reinhardt elaborate ence of viewing my work is unique to abstract paintings, Ledgerwood reveals on this spatial ideal, with a moral each individual, and varies with view- a debt to modernist traditions, such as Abstract Expressionism, while jettison- assurance made possible by two er position in relation to the painting and ambient light. I intend for my ing the authoritarian rhetoric that sur- world wars and the whole of the his- rounds it in favor of visual pleasure and tory of painting. For artists of my paintings to question the convention- awkward grace. She is a 1984 graduate generation, a sense of the absolute is al authority of the grid, to challenge of The School of the Art Institute. no longer possible. My work chal- reason, order, and predictability by Ledgerwood has been the Chair of the lenges the authority of the grid by subverting it visually through Department of Art Theory and Practice creating paintings that provoke an employing optically active, subjec- at Northwestern University since 2003. tive, first - person experience as an www.hydeparkart.org/alist/profile/ledg optical experience often character- erwood_judy ized by after-images, retinal fatigue acknowledgement that lived experi- and other fugitive, ephemeral and ence is not fixed but always in rela- transient experiences that cannot be tion to an ideal. predicted, controlled or legislated. If beauty is an ideal of perfection The motifs in my paintings com- arrived at by consensus then my prise a language based on repetitive paintings are ugly beauty. Ugly vernacular forms, which are intended Beauty is the term I use to describe to recall the decorative arts, interior my paintings when they are good. design, and fashion—domains in Ugly Beauty is a beauty that which women have historically been embraces the flawed, imperfect, frag- the voices of authority. This is a lan- ile, temporal and ephemeral. Ugly guage that uses the decorative to Beauty is life. Perfection is death. 48 » 49

Nina Levy

Study for Drop 2005 Charcoal on paper 40 x 21 inches

DROP CONSISTS OF two ele- In the past, I have both used isolat- Drop ments. On the second floor, a small ed baby heads as a stand-in for a 2006 child leans over the railing looking universal id, and portrayed my own Ultracal, steel, and oil paint down at the first floor. He stands pre- body tossing its head off a rooftop as 36 x 18 x 21 inches (child); cariously on his tiptoes atop a white an emblem of a disruptive plea for 6 x 30 x 26 inches (head) stepstool. Directly underneath the attention. In this case, the child is child’s outstretched arms on the acting out an impulse, which is not ground floor is a flattened woman’s unfamiliar to anyone who frequents head, spread out thinly, perhaps as a buildings with balconies or atriums. Nina Levy (b. 1967, Los Angeles, CA) result of impact. Although not strictly An impulse that is also perhaps rec- has lived and worked in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since 1996. Nina models her portraits, the two elements are mod- ognizable to those who are even slightly ambivalent about their par- sculpture from observation and then eled on myself and my son. introduces a distortion, alteration in ents. And speaking of impulses, part I am interested in taking advantage scale, or fragmentation. The pieces are of a space where one can see the of what makes figurative sculpture modeled in clay, plaster, or hydrocal and first and second floors simultaneous- compelling for me is that viewers painted with oil. She received a BA from ly—where one might first see a pecu- often seem compelled to interact Yale in 1989, and an MFA from the liar piece on the floor and discover physically with it, often with destruc- University of Chicago in 1993. Levy has exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Museum, its relationship to the others above. tive consequences. NY; Neuberger Museum of Art, For the sake of research, my hus- Westminster, NY, and the DeCordova band, my then 2 year old son, and I Museum, Lincoln, MA. Her site-specific slammed a good many little clay outdoor installations have been exhibit- heads on the floor to see just what ed at the Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, sort of distortion resulted. Although CT, and the Museum of Contemporary splotting heads on the floor is partic- Art, San Diego, CA. Recent individual shows include a project for the reopen- ularly compelling for a toddler, we all ing of the National Portrait Gallery, enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately, we Washington D.C., and at Real Art Ways, were not in a pristine and architec- Hartford, CT. turally compelling environment like www.ninalevy.com the Art Center at the time.

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Joan Livingstone

Re/Site 2006 mantled and reconfigured by external WE LIVE IN an historical moment Clothing, construction debris, digital of intense conflation of time and events, so this piece too deconstruct- snapshots, drawings, felt, insulation mate- space, continuously exposing us to, ed the community’s “façade,” and rials, junk food wrappers, leather, nails, or confronting us with, multiple per- proposed new relationships, path- packaging, paint, paper, plastic, spectives of thought, values, life ways, and re-imagined connections. polyurethane, resin, rubber, stuffed toys, styles, desires, and ambitions. Paying texts, thread, and vinyl dimension variable attention to this notion of “multiplici- ty,” Re/Site “mapped” the urban neighborhood of the old and new Hyde Park Art Center. Found sur- Joan Livingstone (b. 1948, Portland, faces, miscellaneous texts, snapshots, OR) references the human organism and bodily experience, questioning discarded remnants, and other detri- contemporary issues of intimacy, sexu- tus – both personal and industrial – ality, and desire in her abstract sculp- were gathered from in and around tures. She received an MFA in 1974 the Center’s environs. As this residue from the Cranbook Academy of Art and was joined, stitched and cast togeth- a BA from the Portland State University er into a long, continuous skin, it in 1972. Her work has been presented in revealed the changing history and numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally evolving memory of the neighbor- including the Museum of Contemporary hood. Rich in physical materiality, the Art, Chicago, IL; Metropolitan Museum process of making the work embod- of Art, New York City, NY; Kanazawa ied the intimacy of the observant, Museum of Art, Japan; Sonje Museum contemporary flâneur. Installed of Contemporary Art, Gyeung Ju, through the long entrance hallway, Korea; Bosie Art Museum, ID, and the now Gallery 2 of the new Center, the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii. She is currently professor and viewer must walk the distance of the chair of the Fiber and Material Studies piece, relying on memory and the Department at the Art Institute of compilation of experience to engage Chicago. the work. As we are continuously dis- www.joanlivingstone.com Artist’s digital rendering of the proposed space during construction

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Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Mark Hereld Rick Gribenas

INSPIRED BY Daniel Buren’s “Weather writes, erases, and rewrites Random Sky abstract minimalist in situ works from itself upon the sky with the fluidity of 2006 the late 1960’s, Random Sky is a digi- language; it is with language that we Digital installation and weather vane tal program that generates random have sought throughout history to 10 x 80 feet calculations in real-time. Its perform- apprehend it.” ances maintain a degree of unpre- dictability informed by external data –Richard Hamblyn, The Invention of culled from the weather instruments Clouds, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001 Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (b. 1961, Madrid, Rick Gribenas (b. 1977, Pittsburgh, PA) Mark Hereld (b. 1956, Ft. Benning, GA) located on the exterior of the Art Spain) has exhibited his work at numer- is an intermedia artist working primarily is a scientist and engineer working in Center. Projected as oscillating verti- ous nationally and internationally with the mediums of sound and light in the Futures Lab at Argonne National cal blue and white bands across the This project was supported by acclaimed institutions, including the varying forms. He has exhibited and Laboratory. His research has ranged Art Center’s glass façade, Random U.S. Equities, Inc. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of performed across the US and interna- from physics, through astronomy and Sky results in tendencies rather than Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in tionally including New York City, Los astrophysics, and into computer science Interior view wholly predetermined narratives. The New York City; the Sao Paulo Biennial; Angeles, London, Vienna, and complet- where he now puts most of his energies. project is a installation on permanent and the Ruffino Tamayo Museum, ed a solo performance tour of Early work in the area of experimental Mexico City. Other projects include Scandinavia in 2006. Gribenas received general relativity taught him how to loan, literally wired into the building’s institutions in Barcelona, Venice, an MFA from the University of Illinois at work in a vacuum. Later, while devel- physical as well as digital infrastruc- Frankfurt and Singapore, as well as here Chicago in December of 2006 as the oping infrared cameras and telescopes ture. It is meant to reside within and in Chicago at the Art Institute and the Navona Fellow in the Arts, prior to for experiments at the South Pole, he without the architecture of the Art Museum of Contemporary Art. He cur- which he held a Visiting Faculty posi- became comfortable with working in Center and to be called upon at any rently lives and works in Chicago and is tion in the Interdisciplinary Program at the cold and being kept in the dark. moment. a professor at the University of Chicago. Carnegie Mellon University's College of He now spends his working hours simu- Fine Art. lating aspects of the real world and www.gribenas.com developing technologies that enliven virtual worlds. When he is not in the lab, he is in studio on the North Side making art. 54 » 55

Kerry James Marshall

“YOU KNOW THAT 61 highway is Black Metropolis the longest road I know…” 2006 —Mississippi Fred McDowell, Mixed media installation Highway 61 Blues 3 parts; dimensions variable

Black Americans have been seeking a spiritual homeland in the United States since at least Reconstruction. Many Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955, cities have assumed the mythic status of Birmingham, AL) moved to Chicago in this “Promised Land” where Black peo- 1987, where he currently lives and ple were in control and prosperous. For works. The subject matter of his paint- ings, installations, and public projects a long time it was Harlem, NY. It has is often drawn from African-American been Memphis, Detroit, Watts in popular culture, and is rooted in the Southern California, and Atlanta, geography of his upbringing. He Georgia, to name a few more. received a BFA from the Otis Art The dream remains unfulfilled, in the Institute in Los Angeles in 1969 where truest sense, so the longing has not he also earned an honorary doctorate diminished. degree in 1999. Marshall’s work has been exhibited in group shows in the In 1945, St. Clair Drake and Horace R. United States for over twenty years Cayton, published Black Metropolis: A and in international exhibitions at The Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. I Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Museum of have appropriated their title for my Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Studio work. The Northern City they examine is Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Chicago. The Harold Washington era is Whitney Museum, New York, NY; perfectly emblematic of the hope and Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, Canada; The Venice Biennale (2003), Italy; and despair—the Blues condition—of Black the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Metropolis. Art, Budapest, Hungary.

“What happens to a dream deferred?” —Langston Hughes, A Dream Deferred

56 » 57

Patrick McGee

THIS LARGE-SCALE string con- north door, to inhabit the polygon’s Dodecadodecahedron struction was based on a mathemati- center. 2006 cal polyhedron form that is called the Multiple perspectives could be Polyester string, plain white and “Dodecadodecahedron”. It was par- perused from the exterior view by dyed tially sunk into the wall, to create an entering through the east door of the 40 x 23 x 9 feet opening in its surface at a doorway. classroom. The exterior view provid- Twelve pentagrams—stars formed by ed access to the extensions of the five intersecting lines, the outline of polyhedron. A pentagon was made which is a five-pointed star as, for up of line segments, which in the Patrick McGee (b. Pocatello, ID) is a example, used on the US flag—are string installation were extended visual artist living and working in spread out evenly around the surface until they met a point of the architec- Chicago. After graduating from the of the Dodecadodecahedron. Made ture. Kansas City Art Institute in 1985, he from white polyester string that is worked as studio manager for renowned sculptor Dale Eldred, assisting with dyed where it is needed to indicate national and international public art edges of planes, this construction is a installations. McGee moved to Chicago minimal, yet complex spatial inter- in 1987. He has exhibited installations Maquette: Dodecadodecahedron vention. and sculptural work in the US and in The then unfinished computer Europe, and he is the recipient of grants classroom with entrances at either from the Illinois Arts Council, the City of end was an ideal setting for this Chicago (CAAP, CAIP) and others. Patrick served on the curatorial board of string installation. In spite of its Gallery 312 until 2005, and in addition transparency, it possessed an “inside” to his individual work has collaborated and an “outside.” Anchoring the form with his partner, Adelheid Mers, on pub- into the wall made its interior acces- lic art commissions since 2003. sible. Placing it to form a starry www.adequatearts.com enclosure over one doorway also married it to the existing architec- ture. Viewers were able to enter the inside of the polyhedron through the

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Adelheid Mers

A LANDSCAPE DESIGN, a gar- for a sizable funding community and HPAC Organogram den lay-out (with pool and spring- is supported by Colleen Coyne. Jen 2006 board), a map (with legend), an envi- Schadler, Margarita Roman and Commercial ink-jet print on fabric ronment, an architecture for the Michelle Beckett keep the entire 192 x 192 inches imagination, and a place to stroll. An place running. A twenty-three mem- image of relations, a blueprint for a ber Board of Directors helps to process, and a house to inhabit. determine the direction the organiza- Based on the information on the tion pursues and assists with much of Adelheid Mers (b. 1960, Düsseldorf, Hyde Park Art Center’s website, the work that is needed to imple- Germany) moved to Chicago in 1988 www.hydeparkart.org, I set out to ment day-to-day activities and spe- with a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service to attend create an image that maps the multi- cial events, along with interns Jamillah James, Lisa Junkin, Sarah the University of Chicago. Her work ple, ambitious approaches this expands texts, places and ideas into organization has taken towards the Kaiser, Philip Nadasdy and other vol- abstract diagrams that ultimately create arts. A diagram of an organization is unteers. I took photographs of those a visual language to powerfully direct called an organogram. In a nutshell: above who were available and willing how we make sense of the world. She Chuck Thurow oversees the entire (and most were), to insert them into has exhibited and lectured widely, curat- operation. With the support of the the image as color coded silhouettes. ed and co-organized exhibitions, and received grants from the DAAD, the six members of the Exhibition In the end, each portrait was trans- formed into a celebratory flower as British Council, the NEA, the School of Committee, Allison Peters takes care the Art Institute Chicago and the city of of exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art well. I very much appreciate those Chicago. She graduated from the Center and at the downtown satellite who work towards big dreams, hopes Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Germany. space. Blake Bradford develops the and ambitions. At the opening of the She has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at educational activities, art classes, new facility, we were at a time and Northwestern University and at the workshops and community outreach. place when a good measure of these University of Chicago, and currently is an Adjunct Associate Professor at The Courtesy of the artist Twenty-six artists teach at or through hopes and dreams actually material- ized. School of the Art Institute where she the Art Center, in community organi- teaches in the Art History and Criticism, zations and public schools. Ray Yang Visual and Critical Studies, Exhibition manages 4833 (the Resource Studies, and Sculpture Programs. She Center), Kate Lorenz is responsible serves on the editorial/curatorial boards of WhiteWalls and Gallery 312. www.adelheidmers.org

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Anders Nereim

THE LIGHTING INSIDE a house amount of electricity this required Shadow Seeking Lights or a Little could organize itself. Lights with little was taken parasitically from the light- Light Music motors and a tiny amount of embed- ing system, in return for the variabili- 2006 ded intelligence could migrate to ty and responsiveness it gave back to Wood, aluminum, nickel silver, new locations, influenced by shadow the system. electronics patterns from the changing sun, and My research goal was to produce 18 x 24 x 96 inches the movement of inhabitants. The active building components that idea of a "smart house" with central- responded to the ambient conditions ized control could give way to an in and around a building, in the same ecological approach utilizing the way that a creature responds as part Anders Nereim (b. 1947, Chicago) has autonomic behavior of decentralized of an ecosystem. Architecture is a drawings, watercolors, and architectural "non-organic life" around us—a sort large, slow endeavor, ideally suited to models in the permanent collections of of “machinic” phylum. a distributed method of gathering the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Designed to run on a pair of taut and using energy and information. Frankfurt, Germany, Art Institute of Chicago, IL, and the Chicago History tuned wires, like those that are used With the addition of simple nervous systems, both sympathetic (for ener- Museum. He has exhibited at the Walker in some low voltage lighting systems, Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of the lights in the work had two eyes, gy grazing and expenditure) and Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Yale and they compare the intensity of parasympathetic (for cleaning and University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; ambient light that each eye sees. The repose), buildings could do a better Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, Italy; light did this with electronic circuitry job of caring for themselves. Castel Dell'Ovo, Naples, Italy; Boston that was remarkably simple—similar Architectural Center, MA; Chicago Architecture Foundation, IL, and the to one bit of RAM—but destabilized Architectural League of New York, NY. in this case to avoid either ones or zeros. The circuit produced an astable oscillation, or variable elec- tric waveform, in response to lighting conditions. The waveform allowed the little motor to turn the light toward the shadow. The small

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Ben Nicholson

A LABYRINTH is one of the most From A to B, the Long Way Around endearing “first” architectural plans, 2006 for it organizes people into a tiny, Reflective tape and a series compact space with remarkable effi- drawings: graphite and colored ciency. There is no need for messy pencil on graph paper foundations, bulging walls or roofs 16 x 16 feet that might leak: all that is necessary is a pair of naked feet that can tread out a plan-of-the-world in the morn- ing dew of a grassy field. Things get Ben Nicholson (b.1953, Newark, really interesting when several peo- England) was educated at the ple enter the place simultaneously, Architectural Association, Cooper Union and Cranbrook Academy. After teaching for the spatial compaction gives that architecture at IIT, Chicago where he up close and personal feeling in a lived for fifteen years, he recently public setting. Think of standing in a moved to New Harmony, IN. His current subway train at 7:45 am, but in a projects include: Horror Vacui: The state of equipoise. Labyrinths are no Desire to Fill Space, a book that muses guarantee of spiritualism, that’s on over the nature of number, geometry the walker’s tab. The artificer is only and the structure of knowledge (2006); to be followed by a companion volume responsible for the choreography of The Hidden Geometric Pavement in winding, waltzing & walking the par- Michelangelo's Laurentian Library. New ticipants across the landscape, studies involve embodied geometry, to towards another realm, be that what engage drawing constructions on the it is. beach, walking labyrinth designs by memory, and using Truchet tiles for both random and repetitive algorithms. 64 » 65

Jennifer Reeder

CLAIM 2006 CLAIM IS A deadpan narrative set Digital video 12 min. in the parking lot of the new Hyde Cast: Stacey Minor, Michael Baldridge Park Center. A married couple and Meegan Ahn decides to separate while their young Image courtesy of the artist son attends a Hyde Park Art Center art class. James and Patricia are an unremarkable couple. They fell in love, got married, bought a house and had a child. They sit silently in Jennifer Reeder (b. 1971, Yellow Springs, their car keeping secrets as a means OH) creates wordless, faintly drama- tized, direct videos of Midwestern living to counter the burden of their mar- that are apolitical and passive. She ried life. From a dull conversation received a BFA from Ohio State emerges a hurtful argument and the University in 1994 and an MFA from The two are at a loss to explain any rea- School of the Art Institute of Chicago in son to stay together. As the argu- film/video in 1996. Her work has been ment peaks, their seven-year-old son exhibited at the 5th Graz Biennial on suddenly appears with a curious set Media and Architecture, Austria; Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, of drawings which make James and Palm Beach, FL; ArtToday Lab, Plovdiv, Patricia wonder why they would ever Bulgaria; Mix Festival, New York, NY; want to be apart. CLAIM is a story New York Video Festival, New York, NY; about waiting and waiting. It is a WWVF, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, story about a relationship and a con- Holland; Aeroplastics, Brussels, Belgium; versation which could ruin every- Videoformes, France; Chicago thing. CLAIM is also a story about the Filmmakers, Chicago, IL, and University Gallery, University of Indiana, power of art and a child’s ability to Northwest, IN. Reeder is an Assistant illustrate his life purely and perfectly Professor at the University of Illinois at when given that opportunity. Chicago in the Digital Cinemas/New Media Arts Department. www.jenniferreeder.com

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Karen Reimer

I MADE lace curtains for the new I like the connotations of upward Lace Curtains Hyde Park Art Center out of the bro- mobility that lace curtains carry in 2006 ken bricks that were knocked out of relation to the Hyde Park Art Center's Bricks, paint, and wire the walls to make room for the large, move to its new bigger, better, and 2 curtains, 67 x 67 inches each long, glass window walls in the gal- classier digs. leries and offices that face the street. Thank you to Amanda DePalma, I saw this as a transference of the Tamara Faulkner, Phil Hamstra, Kevin ornate Beaux Arts style plaster relief- Hyde, Philip Nadasdy, Robert Peters, sculpture decorations on the ceiling Joel Score, and Pat Swanson Karen J. Reimer (b. 1958, Newton, KS) and around the windows in the old examines the relationships between Hyde Park Art Center space in the beauty, value and meaning by exploiting the tensions between copy and original, Del Prado Building—always one of object and process and fine art and my favorite things about it—into the domestic craft. She received an MFA new space. Since the new space is from the University of Chicago in 1989 clean, plain, uncluttered, and modern, and a BA from Bethel College in 1982. assimilating the old ornate decora- Karen Reimer is a longtime Chicago tive relief into the logic of the new artist whose work has been showcased decor called for a sort of mono- in numerous spaces including the Chicago Cultural Center, Beret chrome version of relief sculpture. International Gallery, Gallery 312, and The broken bricks are recognizably the Hyde Park Art Center. formerly serial objects, and so have a sort of sameness, while at the same time each piece is different. They create a pattern that is not a pat- tern—both repetitious and irregular. In the context of Modernist architec- ture, that becomes ornate by virtue of being uncontrolled, fragmented, impure. Phono Graffio Jenny Roberts (b. Detroit, MI) is a visual studio practice and also regularly engages 2005-06 artist with roots in writing. Roberts is inter- in public performance and installation. She ested in various forms of public interven- received an MFA from the University of Sound installation tion that reveal the convergence and con- Chicago in 2003. tradictory nature of private acts in public www.hydeparkart.org/alist/profile/roberts_ places and vice versa. She has an ongoing jenny Selected text from Jenny Roberts’ Phono Graffio sound installation:

“ain't worth fighting for peace of mind”

“only comes through time”

“listen, you know those days”

“expectations lead to disappointment” Jenny Roberts “Ellen and Macy were here” “I used to be a pessimist now I have recovered”

“all you people never die and I will find a way”

“I roll your letters in my mouth to taste your sound”

“life ain't nothing but bitches and money”

“you only think you're queen”

“EVERYDAY LIFE invents itself and female. It consisted of some “this is not your wall” by poaching in countless ways on the slight displacements of found graffiti property of others.” taken from bars and restaurants –Michel de Certeau around Chicago (from writing to “don't worry she won't be needing her lipstick in her dreams” whisper) and of gender (from women’s to men’s rooms and vice Writing on the walls of public bath- “bad is good” rooms is both personal expression versa). The piece occurred in the two (though typically anonymous) and bathrooms on the first floor, where social act. At the same time it’s an people usually are not prepared to “you'll be out of my mind” antisocial act—a form of vandalism— have an aesthetic experience. It had an act of defacement, opposition and no beginning or end but consisted of resistance. Graffiti is typically coy, a constant loop of ambient back- “Jay and Ed where are you?” witty, scatological, sexual, political ground noise that viewers may or (though as a political act it is com- may not notice. plex because while inherently subver- Through small reversals, alterations “men suck” sive it lacks ideology), sentimental, and transformations, the piece philosophical, illicit, suggestive, attempts to trigger a different kind “pardon me mister but I've got too much heart for this broken city” absurd, romantic, despairing, poetic of attention — both to the graffiti and unconstrained. Graffiti is an itself and to the distracted, fragmen- expression of liberty. It is also a tary, layered way we experience and “what would happen if all women decided to go on strike?” group creation. The presence of graf- respond to what surrounds us. fiti on the walls of a public bathroom encourages strangers to add to and “my best friend and I just got groped by werewolves” participate in an informal, momen- tary, impromptu, utopian conversa- “it's not easy being easy” tion where anything can be said. The piece Phono Graffio played with these convergences and trans- gressions of public and private, male

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Kay Rosen

THE WALL PAINTING Look Out Look Out (Up and To the Right) (Up and To the Right) continued an 2006 investigation into the way in which Wall painting 1 1 the most basic structures of lan- 4 /2 x 12 /2 feet guage, such as letters or single words, are capable of mirroring real life, not only through their meaning and what they represent, but also Kay Rosen (b. Corpus Christi, TX) works through their structure and form. exclusively with dynamic juxtapositions Look Out responded physically to the of text, ranging from small to enormous, site and to the shape of the wall with that explore the literal and subjective its cut out doorway. At the same time perception of language. She attended it hoped to describe, with its multi- Tulane University and Northwestern level letters, a situation in which dan- University. She has exhibited extensively in the United States, as well as in ger hovers. The letter L threatened to England, France, Switzerland, Germany, descend and turn a site, a place, a Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, New LOCUS, into LOCUST, a plague, a Zealand, and Australia. Her work was pest, in any case, a negative situa- the subject of a 25-year survey exhibi- tion. tion at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA and Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA in 1998-99. She has also had solo shows and executed commissions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Aspen Art Museum, CO, and the 2000 Whitney Biennial, NY. She has received three NEA Fellowships. Rosen teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her studio is based in Gary, IN and New York, NY. www.kayrosen.com

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Alison Ruttan

THIS PROJECT was an experi- became visible. The exhibited work Transmission ment that looked at the transmission was a document of the event that 2006 of effects in crowd behavior. I am was presented as if it was happening Video projection interested in looking at the way in real time. The purpose of the gath- 2 channels: 8 x 16 feet social interaction shapes biology. ering was left unclear. I am interested New research in psychology suggests in thinking about this work in tandem that the behavior of individuals in to the changing way we perceive our groups can be influenced by the hid- own safety in the world. Alison Ruttan (b. 1954, Knoxville, TN) is den effects of pheromones that in a Chicago-based artist who works in a variety of media. Currently she is inter- turn cause hormones to be secreted ested in the way social interaction in the blood of another. In this way shapes biology. She received an MFA our social actions can be understood from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Exhibitions include a solo exhi- Detail: 4 stills, Transmisson to change our biology. Other more bition at Monique Meloche, Chicago, IL; Courtesy of the artist conscious behavioral effects can be seen in the way we respond to audi- San Francisco International Airport, tory and physical engagement, espe- Virgin Atlantic Terminal, San Francisco, CA; and the Chicago Cultural Center, IL. cially in the form of rhythm which is www.alisonruttan.com known to have regulating effects in the way it enhances our sense of col- lective purpose and common under- standing. We feel this connection when we dance or sing together in unison. In this way also, armies, dance clubs and religious orders pur- posely make use of this effect. The project Transmission was an experiment in looking at crowds and their behavior through facilitating a situation in which these effects

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Mindy Rose Schwartz

THE SCULPTURE I developed the relationship between longing of the people around them. The wall Pushing Up the Daisies for the opening of the new Hyde and memory. I questioned why we hanging, the house plant, the jewelry 2006 Park Art Center and the Takeover remember the things we do and box, the paneling, the color scheme, Mixed media installation show was a vertical landscape. what memory leaves out. The mem- the make-up mirror all contain and 20 x 2 x 2 feet When I was given the opportunity to ories that do stay with us and keep are repositories for the drama, or work with a space that would span returning have a tangible presence lack of drama, in everyday life. between two floors, length and and absence at the same time. I Issues of interior design and deco- wanted the piece to have several ration came to the surface for me gravity became two primary formal Mindy Rose Schwartz is a sculptor living in sculptural properties that needed to emotional responses at once. I want- when I saw the gutted space of the Chicago. She is interested in how elements be addressed. I had been looking at ed it to be scary and funny and cute soon-to-be-totally-renovated Hyde of nature are brought into the domestic liv- a lot of Chinese art from around the and sad and happy and tacky and Park Art Center. My future experi- ing space and how those elements eventu- 1400’s, hand scrolls, scholar’s rock elegant all at once. ence of the space would be changed ally become part of our memories. She received an MFA from the University of and vertical brush paintings. I was I am interested in how people completely by an interior bring aspects or images of nature designer/architect. My sculpture was Illinois at Chicago and a BFA from the very interested in the expressive University of Illinois at Urbana. She has into their interior surroundings. I find intended as a finishing touch to the qualities, unusual abstractions, repe- shown her work in galleries across Chicago tition of forms and the non-hierar- some strategies to be more success- interior design, an object of adorn- including the Renaissance Society; Gallery chical perspective in the landscape. I ful then others. I guess as a person ment to give the place a homey feel. 400; Gallery 312; Northern Illinois also very much related to how the who has never been able to keep a Pushing Up the Daisies was an all University Gallery, and the University art conventions of that time and cul- houseplant alive, this is not surpris- purpose decoration, a chandelier, a Galleries, Normal, IL. She is currently an instructor in the Sculpture Department at ture so highly mediated artists’ ways ing. Certain conventions of planter, an object of contemplation American home decorating and inte- (like a Scholar’s Rock), a dollar store The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. of representing nature. www.mindyroseschwartz.com The piece was called, Pushing Up rior design from the seventies and object de arte and a macramé hang- the Daisies, which is an expression I eighties, the style and objects of dif- ing all in one. wanted to evoke to represent the ferent rooms, like the family room, idea of something new blooming den or bedroom, have influenced my from something gone. The sculpture aesthetic taste, artistic choices and depicted a frozen landscape with subconscious imagination. I imagine stains of blood in the snow. I intend- that the mundane objects in a ed this as a metaphor to investigate domestic space have absorbed the emotional life and personal history 76 » 77

Scott Short

acknowledgement of the pedagogi- rior marks a change in our percep- THE INDIVIDUAL PANES of Untitled cal history of stained glass and other tion of them, our acceptance of them glass were recovered from the old 2006 forms of church ornamentation. as abstractions, contrary to William’s windows that were to be discarded. Etched glass: 14 panes William Durandus wrote in defense of ideas. We shifted from valuing them The view through those windows was 18 x 10 inches each dominated by the blue of the sky and such images in the 13th century, for what they marked to valuing their the green of the grass and trees “Pictures and ornaments in churches markings, and their current position (brown in winter) that line the tracks are the lessons and scriptures of the now reflects that moment of change. to the West. Taking these colors and laity… For what writing supplieth to The glass that I used and the Scott Short (b. 1964, Marion, OH) is a treating them in the same manner him which can read, that doth a pic- stones share the similarities of being ture supply to him which is inscribed slabs, shorn of or uprooted Chicago-based artist who works in that I use for painting, the abstracted painting and drawing. His work deals renderings of the copy machine were unlearned, and can only look.” from the places of their originally with his interest in the reproducibility of etched onto the surface of the panes, William continues on at great intended purposes. So, in deference images, and developing a vocabulary a black and white rendering of color length on the importance of not to these stones, the panes of glass related to the formal concerns for the on glass. Each pane was a section of “adoring” the image, but the history simply leaned against the new win- multiples that he produces. Short uses an image dismembered as the panes and truth that it marked. With this in dows. Discarded because they were photocopy machines to create a dia- logue about the traditionally creative themselves were parts of a now mind, I was looking back at my own no longer wanted for their original photos of the ornately carved grave function, my interest in them lied in role of the artist versus the machine. He absent whole. received both an MFA and BFA from The first and most obvious associa- slabs that lean against the walls in what I inscribed on their surfaces and Ohio State University in Columbus, OH tion is to compare these to stained the Hebridean church of St. their displacement from their former in 1990 and 1988 respectively. He has glass and their new locations reflect Clement’s and the chapel of Cille homes, from the landscape, and from shown his work at numerous exhibition that. By placing them in a new win- Bharra. What strikes me about these the colors that they represent. I don’t spaces across Chicago including dow where the sun will continue to stones is that despite their lack of think of a window as a place in itself, Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage; University of St. Francis; DePaul shine through them, casting shadows names or words of any kind, they are but a space between places, a transi- markers intended for very specific tion that is present and absent at the University Museum; Chicago Cultural from the markings on their surfaces, Center; A.R.C Gallery; and the Randolph they reflected not only the interior places and people. Now displaced, same time. These panes of glass Street Gallery. emphasis of stained glass windows, the lives to which they refer and their marked such a transition, a place and but the projection elements of their resting places are now forgotten time where for better or worse, fabrication. Their location in the stu- (The Cille Bharra stones are said to something was lost and will never be dios/classrooms was also an have been used as ships’ ballasts.) seen the same way again. Their relocation from exterior to inte- 78 » 79

Dan S.Wang

FOR TAKEOVER I presented a Untitled (suite of 16 works for and series of works on paper from the about Hyde Park and nearby places) last five years. None have been 2001-2006 exhibited previously. They were con- Works on paper ceived as singular works and differ in Dimension variable appearance and complexity. Some of them function as meditations on spe- cific sociopolitical problems, while others address slightly more abstract concerns. Some of them once func- Dan S. Wang (b. 1968, Midland, MI) is an tioned as event posters or other artist, activist and writer based in applied media. Because of their indi- Chicago who works alone and with vidual genesis and easily digested groups. In the past year he has exhibit- information, I chose to place them, ed and/or lectured in San Francisco, Nanjing, Chicago, Baltimore, and one at a time, next to doorways Salzburg, Austria. He is the author of throughout the Art Center, to give the widely disseminated pamphlet visitors a reason to pause as they Downtime at the Experimental Station. entered and left different spaces. Rollback Other writings have appeared in the 2005 Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, Art Graphite and colored pencil on found poster Journal, Art AsiaPacific, and many 11 x 17 inches places on-line. He was educated at Carleton College and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Truth Campaign, 2006, ink print on vinyl, 10 x 3 inches

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Anne Wilson Shawn Decker

Mess Animator: Cat Solen ANNE AND SHAWN answered ed. We are singing an idea, mess in 2006 Post-production Animators and questions about their collaborative mess. Cycle vac, residue in the piano, Video and sound installation Mastering: Mark Anderson and Daniel process and then poet Alice George mysterious studio brain. What is 81 x 144 inches (projection size) Torrente collaged their responses, added being built is neither known nor Copyright 2006 Anne Wilson some words of her own, and created destroyed. Courtesy Rhona Hoffman Gallery, this text. Chicago Now all the residue of life is being piled in one large heap, collecting to pile way up, and then sucked into the heavens by some mysterious force, Anne Wilson’s (b. Detroit, MI) recent Shawn Decker (b. 1957, Jamestown, NY) sucked up by a shop vacuum. A exhibitions include Alternative Paradise, is a composer and artist who creates cycle. A shop vac. It's short, the dis- 21st Century Museum of Contemporary sound and electronic media installations tance between our two houses, like Art in Kanazawa, Japan; Perspectives and writes music for live performance, 140: Anne Wilson, Contemporary Arts film, and video. His work has been per- walking the dog except I keep going. Museum, Houston, TX; and 2002 formed in the US and Europe at a wide If we start to sing we hear a power Whitney Biennial, NY. Her art is in the variety of venues. He frequently collab- saw, computers beeping. How can all permanent collections of the orates with other artists, including Jan the dark thread dance? Incredibly Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Erik-Andersson and Anne Wilson. precise, very delicate in an over- the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Museum Recent exhibitions of both solo and col- whelming fashion. A huge piano in of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; laborative work have shown at venues his front room, she has this table Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; DeYoung such as the Experimental Sound Studio, Installation view of Mess in the Museum, San Francisco, CA, and the 21st Chicago, IL; Kiasma Museum, Helsinki, filled with work. Depth cleared away Century Museum of Contemporary Art Finland; Klosterruine, Berlin, Germany; like thoughts in one's head to make woodshop of the Art Center in Kanazawa, Japan, among others. ISEA2002, Nagoya, Japan; 21st Century room for new growth. Subside Wilson is the recipient of grants from Museum, Kanazawa, Japan; Indianapolis aggressively. Who would arrange Artadia, the Tiffany Foundation, the Museum of Art, IN; CAM Houston; ISEA sounds like weather around the mak- National Endowment for the Arts, and 2000, Paris, France; Waino Aalto ing? Splinters of wood. Instead of the Illinois Arts Council. Her work is Museum, Turku, Finland, and numerous turning, we are very green in warm represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery, others. Decker is a Professor in the Art Chicago, and she is a professor at The and Technology and Sound departments months, slippery in winter. Then build School of the Art Institute of Chicago. at The School of the Art Institute of a song about work and the unwant- www.annewilsonartist.com Chicago. www.shawndecker.com

Drawing with Outer Space Scott Wolniak (b. 1971, Chicago, IL) works and a BFA from The School of the Art 2006 in drawing, sculpture, video and installa- Institute of Chicago in 1995. Wolniak tion. His works deal with humor, contem- teaches video production at The School of Cut paper on window plation and reclamation in relation to the the Art Institute and is currently a visiting 10 panels, 8 x 10 feet each everyday. He received an MFA from professor at the University of Chicago. University of Illinois at Chicago in 2002 www.scottwolniak.net

Scott Wolniak

THIS SITE-SPECIFIC window Due to building construction, this drawing involved the construction of piece was removed shortly after an optical visual experience with Takeover opened. The concept was ambient light and directed views. later revisited in a solo exhibition of a Black paper was sized to fit the large, similar but expanded piece (10 pan- continuous window at the southeast els of cut paper, each 8 x 10 feet) by corner of the new Hyde Park Art Wolniak that was on view from July Center. A composition was created 15 – September 4, 2006 on the from photographs of the window’s Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery. view, transforming it into pixilated clusters of dots and dashes. This fragmentary composition was used as a template to perforate and cut into the paper, removing pointillist zones and creating a loose negative image culled from the immediate environment. The piece created a spatial field of filtered light during daytime hours, while also functioning simply as a large-scale abstract work- on-paper. By removing sections of paper and allowing one to view masked portions of the outside world, the piece transformed both the interior and exterior spaces, acknowledging the relationship between the art center and its envi- Detail: Drawing with Outer Space rons. 84

5020 South Cornell Chicago, Illinois 60615 www.hydeparkart.org Hyde ParkARTCENTER 773.324.5520

The Hyde Park Art Center is a not-for-profit Chair ©2007 all rights reserved organization that presents innovative exhibitions, Deone Jackman primarily work by Chicago-area artists, and This catalog was printed in an edition of Vice Chair educational programs in the visual arts for 1000 copies on the occasion of the one year Claudia Luebbers children and adults of diverse backgrounds. anniversary of the opening of The Hyde Park The Center is funded in part by the Alphawood Secretary Art Center’s new home Foundation; The Chicago Community Trust; a Patricia Swanson City Arts III grant from the City of Chicago’s Treasurer ISBN: 0-9778084-1-6 Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Edward G. Lance IV Arts Council; The Gaylord and Dorothy Printing Donnelley Foundation; The Field Foundation of Honorary Chair Original Smith, Bloomington, IL Illinois; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; The Leo S. Ruth Horwich Guthman Fund; The Illinois Arts Council, a Board of Directors state agency; The Joyce Foundation; The Layout+Typography Dawoud Bey Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation; The the JNL graphic design, Chicago Tim Brown MacArthur Foundation; The MacArthur Fund Martha Clinton for Arts and Culture at Prince; The Orbit Fund; All photography is courtesy of Tom Van Eynde Louis D’Angelo The Playboy Foundation; Polk Bros. unless noted otherwise. Lawrence Furnstahl Foundation; The Clinton Family Fund; The Sara Brooke Hummer Lee Foundation; South East Chicago Kineret Jaffe Commission; The Wallace Foundation; and The Martha Jannotta Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Janis Kanter and the generosity of its members and friends. Sonya Malunda Lauren Moltz Lead Sponsor: Susan Muller Alex Pearsall Robert Sullivan Barbara Wagner Melissa Weber Karen G. Wilson

Executive Director Chuck Thurow

Director of Education Blake Bradford

Studio Manager Michelle Beckett

Development Associate Colleen Coyne

Director of Development Kate Lorenz

Director of Exhibitions Allison Peters

Director of Operations Margarita Roman

Program Manager – 4833 rph Ray Yang

Preparator / Media Technician J. Christopher Hanmes