December 6, 2011 by Jeremiah
Plural in collaboration with The Center for Book Technology will be exhibiting Living Book, 2011 at Carrie Secrist Gallery Project Room December 10, 2011 – January 15, 2012. In addition to our work in the Project Room, Derek Chan will be exhibiting his stunning work in the main gallery.
at Carrie Secrist Gallery
835 W. Washington Blvd / Chicago, IL
Opening Reception:
December 10 / 5:00 – 8:00pm
Living Book, 2011 is a multi-media installation environment created by Plural and The Center For Book Technology. Living Book transforms the gallery space into an automated book production facility. Using custom-software, viewers in the space are captured in-real-time (every 60 seconds) from an overhead camera and projected onto the wall. Each capture is then printed onto single pages of a book in production. In addition, a keyboard allows viewers to author their own page(s), creating a spontaneous performance environment where a database of individual choices becomes a collective narrative.
The Living Book Production Facility will be open 5 hours a day, printing a single page every 60 seconds, resulting in a 300-page book at the end of each business day. Each week will become a collection of 5 books. Living Book 2011 will become a collection of 25 books.
Hours of operation:
11:00am – 4:00pm Tuesday – Saturday / December 12, 2011 – January 15, 2012
December 3, 2011 by Jeremiah
Golden Age, Chicago’s best independent bookstore/project space, has sadly closed. Read the exit interview with Jason Foumberg
December 3, 2011 by Jeremiah
Support American Ritual
American Ritual is a feature-length documentary exploring what television does for us and what it means to American culture. Through vérité footage, in-depth conversations and archival film and audio, American Ritual examines the relationship between cultural promise and lived experience, while considering the possibilities of the privately felt public imagination.
American Ritual arises from the assumption that the televised image is both representational and generative. The film will examine how television fits within American mythology and creates new readings of history. Since it’s debut, television has taught Americans who to be, how to love and what to want, simply by presenting a concrete image of life.
December 2, 2011 by Jeremiah
Jordan Martins : Strange Attractions
@ Elastic Arts / 2830 N Milwaukee, 2nd floor
runs December 1, 2011 – January 15, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, Dec 15 / 6:00 - 8:00pm
On view from December 1st until January 15th at the Elastic Vision Gallery, Strange Attractions is a project by visual artist Jordan Martins, based on the Chicago-specific tradition of hand-painted, block-letter grocery signs which have come to be associated with Hispanic markets in the city. This exhibition is comprised of new large scale panels, stemming from a storefront installation project carried out at various locations in the city in 2011.
By exaggerating the expressive colors and gestural rhythms of the original signs, Martins builds patterns that simultaneously attract (using fluorescent colors, bold shapes) and conceal (by undermining legibility). In this sense they relate both to natural camouflage and bright plumage used by animals to attract mates, or to broader notions of how visual stimuli affect or sculpt behaviour. Martins’ technique creates a double abstract gesture where the sliced and torn edges of the signs interrupt and amplify the painterly qualities of the original signs, creating mutations of the original strokes and lettering. This mirrors the way this particular sign tradition as a Chicago phenomenon has survived by mutation, having been re-appropriated and celebrated by ethnic markets even as it was made obsolete by more modern sign printing.
During the opening reception on Thursday, 12/15, the artist will present two short videos with a live sound performance.
This project is partially supported by a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
