plural blog

Conversations at the Edge: 2012

Jeremiah — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:37:09 +0000

from CATE: CATE returns to the big screen on February 9! Join us for the second half of our ten-year anniversary bash. We’re bringing in ten artists and curators over ten weeks, including Tirtza Even, Basma Alsharif, Steve Anker, Abina Manning,Laure Prouvost, Tomonari Nishikawa, Sara Ludy, Brent Green, Yvonne Rainer,and James Benning!

Visit our Current Season and keep checking back for more info!

Temperature 2012

Renata — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:11:42 +0000

Plural is proud to have designed Volume Gallery’s first publication—Temperature 2012—a diagnostic of contemporary American design. Released in collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Design.

Stop by at the release party at
Saturday / January 28 4:00–7:00 PM

At the Andrew Rafacz Gallery
835 W Washington Blvd

Sonnenzimmmer + Winterbureau

Jeremiah — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:21:32 +0000

Sonnenzimmmer + Winterbureau Slimventory Sale

3605 N Damen / Rear Store
Chicago, IL 60618

February 11 / 2012
10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Chicago-based designers/print makers Sonnenzimmer and Winterbureau are opening the doors to their shared Roscoe Village studio for a one-day sale on screen printed posters, prints, and original artwork. For one day only, prices will be marked down to help make room for 2012’s new stock.

Contact: hello@winterbureau.com

SUPPORT

Jeremiah — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:39:33 +0000

Hosted by the good folks at Chicago Artists’ Coalition and their HATCH Projects, Twelve Galleries Project presents Quarterly Site #9: Support curated by female design collective Quite Strong. The exhibition presents a visual interpretation of Chicago’s supportive community for artists and designers. Featuring HATCH Projects artists and Quite Strong Lust List designers.

Featuring:
Installations by HATCH Projects artists -
Amanda Greive / Brittany Ransom / David Wittig / Jim Zimpel / Marissa Lee Benedict / Renee Prisble

Art and Design Works by Quite Strong Lust List designers:
Alanna MacGowan / Cave Party Collective / Firebelly Design / Elaine Fong / José Scaglione / Julia Stotz / Linsey Burritt / Margot Harrington / Monina Velarde / Nancy A. Bernardo / Nancy McCabe / Nicole Lavelle / Renata Graw / Tinne Van Loon / Tonya Douraghy / Veronica Corzo-Duchardt / Veronika Burian / Zara Picken

Living Book

Jeremiah — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:41:10 +0000

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

Goodbye Golden Age

Jeremiah — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:23:47 +0000

Golden Age, Chicago’s best independent bookstore/project space, has sadly closed. Read the exit interview with Jason Foumberg

American Ritual

Jeremiah — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:18:51 +0000

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.

Jordan Martins: Strange Attractions

Jeremiah — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:28:19 +0000

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.

The Evidence Show(s) & Semi-Permanent Program

Jeremiah — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:02:56 +0000

November 30 / 6pm / MoCP
Video Playlist: The Evidence Show(s) with guest curator Jesse McLean

The Evidence Show(s) is a one-night public screening of video work in conjunction with Crime Unseen. The artists featured in this program consider the potential for everyday objects, ordinary surroundings and average people to become evidence of something beyond the familiar.

Today! Chase Scenes, Jessie Stead, 2009, 12:00
Am I Evil?, Jacob Ciocci, 2011, 4:14
The Chocolate Factory, Steve Reinke, 2002, 26:00
Earth Moves, Semi-Conductor, 2006, 4:55
Apple Grown in Wind Tunnel, Steve Matheson, 2000, 26:00
Chapters 1-12 of R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet Synced and Played Simultaneously, Michael Bell-Smith, 2005, 4:22
Payroll, Noah Klersfeld, 2003, 13:00

December 14 / 7pm / Gallery 400
Semi-Permanent Program: Curated by Deborah Stratman and Jesse McLean

We humans are proud of the material accretion of our thinking—the objects and writings that represent our particular experience. We’re especially fond of amassing, grouping, and pondering the leavings. It can be dangerous to be so fond, not only due to the threat of becoming buried by our precious hoard, but also the threat of being trapped by a collected history offering an illusion of permanence. The artists in Semi-Permanent Program consider this unstable pile through the lens of essentially temporal mediums. Screened in conjunction with Archival Impulse, on view at Gallery 400 through December 17th, the films and videos reflect on the various natures of collections and the act of collecting, revealing both the potential and limitations of dutifully archived human knowledge.

Britannica, John Latham, 1971, 6:00, 16mm
Toute la memoir du monde, Alain Resnais, 1956, 20:00, video
Versions, Oliver Laric, 2010, 8:49, video
The Idea of North, Rebecca Baron, 1995, 14:00, video
Art Tape (Live With/Talk About), Michael Bell-Smith, 2011, 3:12, video
Journals and Remarks, David Gatten. 2010, 15:00, 16mm
My Favorite Homepage, Paperrad, 2006, 2:42, video
Art Appreciation, Eric Fleischauer, 2009, 5:00, video
Today! Chase Scenes, Jessie Stead, 2009, 12:00
Am I Evil?, Jacob Ciocci, 2011, 4:14
The Chocolate Factory, Steve Reinke, 2002, 26:00
Earth Moves, Semi-Conductor, 2006, 4:55
Apple Grown in Wind Tunnel, Steve Matheson, 2000, 26:00
Chapters 1-12 of R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet Synced and Played Simultaneously, Michael Bell-Smith, 2005, 4:22
Payroll, Noah Klersfeld, 2003, 13:00

Neche Collection @ Public Works

Jeremiah — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:51:43 +0000

Neche Collection
@ Public Works Gallery
Opening:
Friday, December 2nd
7 - 10pm

from PW: Artist Veronica Corzo-Duchardt’s Neche Collection is a set of minimal, atmospheric prints and print / photo diptychs that retell the story of her grandfather Neche’s life across an archive of his precious, quotidian possessions: shoe horns, graph paper, toys. After Neche’s death, Veronica inherited items that spoke clearly about his heritage as a Cuban exile of Lebanese descent, and as a career accountant. She also inherited her grandfather’s desire to document. Making use of abstracted color fields, re-contextualized language and representative graphic renderings, Veronica translates these material touchstones into a paper narrative of her familial history.