Photography In Chicago Now

Family, we all have one, whether we’d like to admit it or not. Sometimes we just like to deny the fact we have family due to certain issues, an unstable relationship, a separation of parents, not seeing eye to eye, distance, and so on. Many of us get to a point where we forget the significance of family, or it’s just put on the backburner due to our own busy, intricate lives. “Unfamiliar Family” is an exhibition including the artists Angela Strassheim, Lisa Lindvay, Larry Sultan, and Sarah Faust; which shines different lights on family issues, personal connections to parents and siblings, and to take a more intimate look at those relationships. Each of these artists look through different windows inside the lives of their families, their surroundings, and both familiar and unfamiliar aspects of their connections to them.  

Family and Photography has gone hand in hand since the invention of the camera. At first it was images created of important people within the family, adults who could sit through the long exposures of early cameras. As exposure times went from hours, to minutes, to seconds there were photographs made of victorian children, which are refered to as hidden mother photographs.

  As cameras and film became more affordable, and with exposure times being mere seconds, snap shots of families began to be commonplace. Since then we’ve been taking pictures of family as a regular act. Memories of holidays, birthdays, big events such as graduation or a new car have all been documented on film. The thing is, the camera has always been pointed towards the younger generations, towards the children. Just look through your boxes of old Polaroids or negatives developed at the corner drug store. They mostly consist of you growing up. It’s not common fro us to take the camera from our parents hands and point it at them.

This exhibition is meant to exchange ownership of the camera and focus its view back towards the others in your family. Though each of these artists are looking at their families through different cameras, different light, and looking at multiple issues within; they all create photographs that truly get inside the lives of their families and give us that opportunity to look through their eyes.

Larry Sultan  Pictures From Home is a portrait project, using his parents as his subjects and their home as the setting. Sultan has explained this project started after his father was forced into early retirement; “Photographing my father became a way of confronting my confusion about what it is to be a man in this culture. Unaware of deeper impulses, I convinced myself that I wanted to show what happens when – as I interpreted my father’s fate – corporations discard their no-longer-young employees, and how the resulting frustrations and feelings of powerlessness find their way into family relations.”

Through Sultans use of his own photographs, still images from old home movies, family snapshots and mementos and transcribed interviews and conversations with his parents, Pictures From Home became much more about family and how time and outside events affect it. 

Sultans image, “My Mother Posing for Me”, captures a moment in his parent’s life, though staged, shows the life of a retiree and his wife. Sultans father sits to the left of the image, watching a baseball game on an older tube television, placed on a white wrought iron shelf, with two plants placed on top. Sultan’s mother stands slightly off center to the right of the image, and as stated, is posing for the camera, staring straight into it. Light from the right falls upon the subjects, and creates a lush color palette with green walls and carpeting, his mothers shimmering metallic pink blouse, his fathers button up shirt with an intricate pattern, all get illuminated and dance the viewers eyes around the image.

  Similar in subject and style, Sarah Faust creates images of her mother, in her series Photographs of My Mother. Like Sultan, Faust’s project is that of which documents her mothers journey into the later years of her life and the bond between mother and daughter. Faust states, “In photographing myself and loved ones I investigate its vulnerability, even its mortality.” This project is an exploration of the “idea that one’s memories and feelings may overlap from one generation to the next.” Faust creates images that compare and contrast her mothers and her own body, which capture the small interactions between them.

In Faust’s image “Untitled(with baby Mimi)” she photographs herself, her mother and her child all through the kitchen window. The intelligent composition  of the image creates a separation between subjects even though they are all captured in this one photography. A square framing from the window frame forms around Faust and her baby that she is holding. Faust stares straight on into the camera, her child off towards the left in the direction of Faust’s mother. Her mother looks out to the left of the image, out another kitchen window. The kitchen itself is mostly white, in the foreground a table and chairs with some adornment around their edges sit towards the bottom of the image, some regular kitchen items sit on the counter tops. The real subject matter here is the generations of women in this family, Mothers, and Daughters.

  In Lisa Lindvay’s ongoing series, she is creating images of her father, sister and two brothers as they deal with her mother’s deteriorating mental health. Lindvay captures the physical and emotional aspects of her family within her families home. Lindvay states that, “The photographs expose how my mother’s illness influences the condition of the space and emotional well being of my family members. This is an exploration of how individual identity is shaped and altered within our familial relationship.”

Many of Lindvay’s photos are a personal look into the lives of her family members. Throughout her series the state of the house greatly reflects that of the mental state of her family; broken plaster on the walls, junk food present in their rooms, a sense of disregard for vanity. Yet each of the images shows comfortableness about them. The way the subjects are photographed, how they are both the viewer and viewed.

  In “Dinner”, her father and brothers are sitting on the ground, behind a long, low coffee table. McDonalds is sprawled across it, yet not much attention is being given to anything by the subjects. The brother on the right is examining his fry while the father in center and brother to the left are staring at what seems to be nothingness. This photograph is very much based on the last supper image, but creates a parody in a sense due to the subjects and fast food on the table.

  Angela Strassheim’s series deals with family and religious influences in her series “Left Behind” which focuses on “the memory and evidence people create that outlives them.” Her family is the main focus of this body of work. These images are created in a way that is influenced by her childhood and adult memories. The photographs are taken meticulously, seeing as how Strassheim had started off in forensic photography, and mirror the strictness evoked in her religious upbringing. This series brings many things to focus in which would be considered religious upbringings. Images of children and their “purity”, dinnertime prayers (both at home and at McDonalds), rooms perfectly placed, the hunting of animals and even suicide.

  Strassheim’s photo “Untitled (Grandmother)” is a prime image to think about the series title “Left Behind”. A series that deal with thoughts of the rapture and religion and family has been captured in this perfectly composed image. A deceased elderly woman, in a pink coffin, wearing a pink outfit, and a pink glow illuminated the subject all beg to question, was this woman left behind? What is her memory that will outlive her, what will outlast the life that she lived?

  Unfamiliar Family is an exhibition that begs viewers to look into their own family life and ask questions. To ask about their own feelings, their prides, their shortcomings, their fears. Each of these artists bring something unique, just how every family is unique, no matter how normal things might seem. This exhibition hopes to have viewers realize the unfamiliar in the familiar. The smallest things can change the way your family functions; the interactions with your parents and siblings, your religion or lack thereof, the mental and physical state of those around you and the unexpected events that change the dynamics in your family.

  -William Tallon-

Sources

Angela Srassheim

http://www.wipnyc.org/blog/angela-strassheim

-Left Behind

http://www.marvelligallery.com/LBCatalogueEssay.html

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2005/05/artseen/angela-strassheim

-Family Studies

http://jenniferhearn.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/angela-strassheim/

Larry Sultan

 -Pictures of Home

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/10/roswell-angier-roswell-angier-on-larry-sultan-pictures-from-home-2006.html

http://larrysultan.com/gallery/pictures-from-home/info

  Lisa Lindvay

http://www.mocp.org/collection/mpp/lindvay_lisa.php

http://www.lisalindvay.com/projects/project-text

  Sarah Faust

-Photographs of mother

http://www.mocp.org/collection/mpp/past/faust_sarah.php 

            Motherhood is a subject that is brought up in so many different forms and I have never seen a photo exhibit about motherhood the way that this one is in The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. Many photographers Janine Antoni, Elina Brotherus,
Elinor Carucci,
Ana Casas, Broda
Ann Fessler,
Tierney Gearon,
Fred Hüning,
Katie Murray, and
Hanna Putz showed what motherhood meant to them in so many different ways. From maternity, to how scary a schizophrenic mother can be, to how a woman who can’t get pregnant goes through the act of fertilization, this exhibit goes through the whole spectrum. With video and still photos the work show how mothers go through their lives with these children. Some more startling than the other, the artists knew exactly what they were doing when making these works of art.

              Right when you step in ahead of you on this big wall is a giant photo of what is supposed to me a mother wearing a dollhouse inside a playroom that she would be with her child. Janine Antoni creates a self-image that is so strong it screams motherhood. Held together by strings it seems to reference how held tightly a mother is to her home and how she incorporates every room in her house all the time being such a big part of it. Her legs take up most of the space in the dollhouse’s rooms so I figure that’s what it means. She’s standing on a red fire truck rug that any kid would love to have. She even states, “I intentionally create an ambiguous image that reflects the complex reality of motherhood, and I embrace the necessity of shape-shifting in order to fulfill this role.” This piece is gigantic which I think puts a little bit more emphasis on the mother being such a big part of the home life and is so overwhelming.

              When you walk in on the right wall when you walk in, Hannah Putz displays images, which are more apart of the maternity part of motherhood with pictures of naked mothers holding their naked child. These powerful photos show how close one is to their mother and the completeness a baby feels when their mother is holding them. My favorite out of the photos is one where neither the baby’s face nor mothers face is showing so it’s just an intimate moment that anyone can relate to because it’s anonymous.

             On the third level of the show there is a video of a woman using the Gazelle Glider work-out machine.  At first it seems harmless, but then after watching for a bit her son wants to be picked up. So she picks him up and starts using it again. Ok, so far so good. Then the video starts displaying an actual gazelle running for its life away from a cheetah. Which in my opinion was pretty funny because its showing how her act of running is becoming harder and harder with the child on her shoulder. So it makes sense. And then a little after that her other son comes in the room and wants to be picked up also so now she has two children on her shoulder and more rapidly the video goes from her running to the gazelle running for its life. Finally around the end of the video she starts talking to her husband who is watching her work-out with both of her children. It’s insane to think the load women take on for their children when she is already working her butt off. I would have to say that I envy mothers who can do that.

             Overall the show was a success. It brought forth a lot of ideas about mothers being the soul thing that everyone can react to. It was so beautiful I thought of my mom the whole time I was in there.  Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood. will be on display until July 13, 2014

            I took a stroll to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and came across many interesting multimedia pieces done by William J. O’Brien. When I say many, I mean hundreds, yes, one hundred and twenty to be exact. O’Brien (born in 1975) was showing his wide-range of work that explores color, shape, texture, and material. He works with so many different types of medias including drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, and installation. This exhibition was the first time he was in a large scaled museum show devoted to his whole practice. Through his work, he likes to examine both and emphasis on structure and elements of improvisation. Nothing is perfect and that’s the way he likes it, unconventional.  The show is set up in different sections, or stanzas, with each one featuring different works to underscore the connections between disparate objects as well as the artist’s interest in scale. Looking at everything I would have to agree with his method. It’s a shot in the face when you first see it. The wow factor is apparent and his exuberance characterizes much of the art. His skillful understanding of how materials will react with one another is uncanny.

  The pieces that I was most interested in were multimedia pieces using colored pencil, ink, glitter, and felt on paper. Three works, two orange and one pink were bright and eye catching. The sizes were roughly 68 x 42 inches. Each piece is untitled with the date 2012 so these works are not that old. The chaos that is happening in each one moves your eye around the whole piece and the use of color is astounding with the background being one apparent color with layer upon layer added to enhance the character of it. Looking like it was made on a computer screen but with all physical materials he creates these graphic images that would make anyone stop and stare.

My favorite out of them all would be the first one I saw. Which is one of the orange ones with sharp geometric shapes pointing toward the middle of the left side. The triangles (which look like daggers) are paired up by color. Some red, black, grey, green, and a bright blue. The top looks like he was thinking of rain because it looks like blue water droplets showering over the piece. One the right side, light turquoise paint is used with little circles of a purple/blue color in the same space and then on the top layer he used red splatter paint to spice it up that much more. Finally at the bottom are pentagons and other polygonal shapes that give the work some grounding. It really is a spectacular use of color, shape, and design. 

William J. O’Brien brought out his best stuff at this exhibition. So much of his work was over the top and bright and completely in your face which made the experience that much more appreciative. This exhibition is organized by Naomi Beckwith, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The show will be going on for sometime now and will be showing until May 18, 2014.

  VIVIAN MAIER: OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Harold Washington Library

March 29-Sept 28th

    Vivian Maier’s life is that of one wrapped in mystery. The gallery trying to peer into this mystery is located on the 9th floor of the Harold Washing Library Center. This show consists of 51 silver gelatin prints taken from the book.

            The exhibition consists of street photography and self-portraits, grouped together in terms of content and a general time frame. All of these images come from Vivian Maier Prints Inc., a collection owned by Jeffrey Goldstein. This man has collected around 17,500 negatives, 2,000 prints, 30 homemade movies and numerous slides.

            This exhibition, only containing 51 images, really makes the mystery that much more interesting. There is a question of what else is out there that she took pictures of? Who, when, where and why are all things I wonder about while looking into the small peep hole of her life as a photographer. Between the self portraits, pictures of the kids she was a nannie for, street photography and all of the small information like contact sheets, receipts, equipment she used even all add to and create more of the mystery. Therefore this gallery is one that not only gives you beautiful imagery but a beautiful story that is still being pieced together.

  Sadly Vivian Maier’s passed April 21, 2009 before anyone could contact her about her life. This is the reason she is such a mystery. Her life is only being pieced together by those she had worked for; receipts from photography businesses, bits of information within her photographs and audio conversations with those she photographed.  With over 100,000 negatives and various other forms of photographic, visual and audio material her life might take some time to figure out.

            Her work is something Chicagoans need to see, or anyone for that matter who is interested in street photography in the 1950’s-70’s, in and around Chicago. One can only imagine what is on many of the negatives not shown, since there are only 51 images out of thousands being shown. It’s only a small glimpse at what this woman has lived through and documented.

Jackie Furtado- “Sister Shifter”

              As photographers we are constantly surrounded by the works of our peers, our friends, our colleagues and so, sometimes, photography blurs into our norm; we don’t take in it’s magic, its essence, and we float on to the next image in our life.

            While touring the Weinberg Gallery I came across this hauntingly beautiful image. It was set in a room, only identifiable by a pin with a number punched into the wall next to it, and it caught my eye. To some it might seem like a strange image to be moved by but to me it just sunk in like a sinking ship in cold water; it froze me in place.

            Formally this picture doesn’t seem to have the elements of a great image. A foggy reflection, a straight white bar running vertically, cutting the frame in two, even an odd shadow streaking across the girls face. But for some reason all of these “flaws” work together to create a mood. This mood is silent and somber, mirrored by the expression on the face of the girl. All of these elements create a striking image of mystery, of voyeurism, of trying to find out who this young woman is. As a viewer I want to see into this girls life, into this house. I want more.

            The image is 16” x 20” and for a gallery is not very large, but was quite all right for the room in which it was displayed. I believe this also helped bring me in closer to the image, creating the feeling I got in my chest.  It made me get up close and personal, not ponder from a distance and move on.

            Finding more information on this image was difficult as Jackie Furtado is a young artist, but you can look at more of her images here http://jackiefurtado.com/.

           Currently at the Glass Curtain Gallery at Columbia College of Chicago there is an ongoing interactive exhibition called Risk: Empathy, Art and Social Practice filled with things from writing down your own recipes to an actual dinner you can attend and get a full course dinner with strangers. It’s a citywide exhibition so multiple places to go visit and I was fortunate enough to see this one. At first glance it’s an odd show because the artwork is not at all anything conventional. You have to be really into the art world to know about this work. Right away, to the left when stepping in the doors is a piece that is made up of books, but they are sprayed with something that made them grow funguses on them. In cased in a glass box this work was something odder than I have ever seen before. The show was definitely surprising.

            The one piece that was the most interesting by Alberto Aguilar was called Lunch Room Expanse and A Personal Dinner Invitation: A Wedding to an Unknown Couple who set up this table where you could have dinner with complete strangers. The meaning was to show how open a conversation could become over a meal with any person. People of all ages would come and get served a full meal with appetizers and everything but would not know what they were getting before hand. The whole experience was a surprise. It shows that people can still have a meaningful conversation with each other instead of being behind their phone all the time. You get to know someone real instead of just viewing his or her profile page. The way its set up is odd too. Seats are made out of 2x4s, there is a coat hanger in the middle of the table, mirrors on the wall, and even a small two person seating outside this window attached to the table. It truly is an odd but amazing piece.

            Not only was Alberto’s installation odd, there was a three-channel video playing in the room around the corner. You would sit in the center and be surrounded by 3 videos of this performance that made no sense in my opinion. Not In Another Place, But This Place…(Happiness) by Kirsten Leenar consists of police officers, students, community activists from the 48th ward and Alderman Harry Osterman. The performance was odd. Students placing tape on the ground, while other pick them up. There was one part where they were putting up cardboard boxes that spelled something out that was unreadable. So overall, confusion was something that hit me the hardest.

            The show was something that could be viewed more than once to get the full experience. Luckily it still goes on till the 26th of April. Also if you are interested, other parts of the exhibition will be opened and the last event is May 6th. I recommend you put your thinking cap on before seeing this show because you’ll need it.

Crash Landing

  Gary Cawood- Excavation March 28-April 14, 2014

Moraine Valley Art Gallery

9000 W College Pkwy, Palos Hills, IL 60565

  Gary Cawood is a Little Rock based photographer that started this series in 2006, titled Excavation. These images explore what he considers surface scars, the remains in our environments that are considered expendable.

Cawood’s project is about opening eyes, to make people aware of our environments, and the damage we cause to them, but that they are also resilient.

Requiem II 

Excavation is a project in which Cawood selected sites that were excavated a long time ago. Cawood states that, “ at first I focused on the surprising forms and colors created by erosion. Soon I began adding throwaways to the compositions. Like the land, much of the stuff we buy is considered disposable and makes its way to sites like these.”

  Globe

  This project is a narrative both found and set up, that creates quirky yet serious images that make you think about our current disposable culture.

Check Gary Cawood’s Website out, here, to see Excavation and his other works. 

  Robert Gurbo – Andre Kertesz Estate Curator

  Robert Gurbo is a great man for the job of curating the Andre Kertesz Estate. Mr. Gurbo talked straight, without notes or hesitation for an hour and a half. This man is extremely passionate about the work he has been trusted with curating.

Robert Gurbo talked about his days as a child, and how he was given a Kertesz photography book and how he was hooked. Mr. Gurbo never dreamed of meeting, working for and then curating his role models work.

The way this man talked was inspirational. The history he knew of Mr. Kertesz and his work was just amazing. Like I said he talked for over an hour straight about Kertesz’s family, his brother (his soulmate), his time prewar, postwar, his time he spent with painters in which he met his future wife(2nd), his time becoming Paris’s most well known photographer and his unknown status in New York. There is no way in which I can describe the breadth of this mans knowledge on both the man and the work.

I can only suggest picking up either André Kertész: The Early Years and André Kertész: The Polaroids, both of which Robert Gurbo is the author of. 

RISK, an ongoing exhibition (Feb 10-April 26, 2014), which explores art in a social space. RISK is a citywide exhibition, which has a “base” at The Glass Curtain Gallery, 1104 S Wabash Ave, Chicago IL. The exhibition is a mix of installation art, performance work, video, audio and interactions with the artists.

  While RISK is a citywide exhibition, I was only able to visit the collective artists works at The Glass Curtain Gallery.

  Walking in the first thing I noticed was a wood framed, yellow/gold painted structure with blinds on both sides and a picnic table inside.  This piece was called Lunch Room Expanse and A Personal Dinner Invitation: A Wedding to an Unknown Couple, created by Alberto Aguilar. This piece was created with the intent to invite a couple to get married in the space. An ad went out on Craigslist along with a guest list of 100 people. The artist also has various lunches in the space during its run, to just create a bond between people, a performance of getting to know one another, while he takes the back seat to the event.

  Faheem Majeed’s Shacks and Shanties is another structure built within the space. The purpose of this constructed shack is to give other artists a place to exhibit their work and perform on a stage placed outside the shack. The shack is built of found materials; discarded wood is nailed and screwed together to build the piece.

Not In Another Place, But This Place…(Happiness)  is a three channel video installation towards the back of the gallery, created by Kirsten Leenar. The video’s cast consists of police officers, students, community activists from the 48th ward and Alderman Harry Osterman. From my short time spent in this space I was able to view police men standing in place, an older man taping the floor of a stage in intricate designs and tid bits of acting from a younger crowd. It is definitely worth another visit to view the entirety of the video.

  RISK is so much more than what is in the space at The Glass Curtain Gallery. You can check out the events of RISK, here. The events go past the closing of the space at the Glass Curtain and the last event is May 6th. So if you have the time please check out an event that in your neighborhood.  

     Their project not only talks about the pollution and the effect on the environment, but they take it further and go to how the people were affected. Evans takes photographs of everything involved. The land, the people making money on it, the people losing money on it, and how families are split between the two sides. One family that they talked to owned part of the land that they are mining the oil. See what happened was that the landowner did not own the rights to the minerals underneath the surface land they had, so by law, the oil companies have the right to collect what is theirs. The company came and destroyed a part of this man’s land but the sons and daughters are working for the oil company because they are giving the people of North Dakota so many jobs. This is a total contradiction that can’t be avoided.

    Upon entering the show you, its like walking outside of a house onto a porch. The porch was designed to make it seem exactly like that, like you are looking out onto the North Dakota countryside. On the right, there was a space called White Earth: Black Gold, which was the area that showed the families that I was talking about earlier. It showed how they were neglected in ways too and the unfair treatment they were given. Seeing this side of it was very moving because these are the people getting the shorter end of the stick and its always good to hear their side of the story.

    On the middle wall was some aerial footage of the land. She rode in a plane and was able to capture some astounding views of the areas and you really see the size of the destruction the companies are doing to the land. Also on the wall were the some of the people that were affected but not in a major way. One man got a job as the labor work for the oil company just with hourly wage and is just a bystander really. Some people need this to happen to live so there to needs to be credit where credits earned and she nailed it.

    The last wall, called Roses and Money, was the people that benefitted the most out of this thing. The company owners and state representatives were photographed as well as some of the drilling areas. Seeing the people like this you don’t see them as doing anything wrong. Just doing the job they sought out to do. I felt that was a actually a good thing because not everyone is going to label them as bad people.

    Overall the project was a success and her pictures couldn’t have shown us more that what she put out. It really brought attention to something that needs it.  

In the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago there is an exhibit going on called Archive State. The photography shown there is a collection of found photographs and there is one series that specifically caught my attention. Simon Menner, who has found old polaroids from the time when the German Democratic Republic’s, commonly referred as GDP, state security service conducted secret home invasions. The Stasi as they are normally called was known for being one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police that ever existed. Menner really chose something that was political and intriguing. The work is to show the pictures the Stasi would take before they rambled through the home so they could make sure to put everything back in the same exact place that they found it. Learning this I astounded me. Privacy is something no one wants to have broken and to have you’re whole home searched through is devastating. A person feels violated, but the Stasi knew that, they were smart for doing what they did and Menner explains that in this series.

The work is set up in a grid system consisting of 105 images so 7x15. At first the work is overwhelming, so many things to look at, but that’s what was so inviting. You had to step closer in order to really take it all in. now there were pictures of everything you could think of in a house. The bedroom, the bathroom, kitchen, even the cabinet where a parent would keep their children’s toys was searched. All together the images worked together as if I were walking around a house. It was amazing how the repetition of Polaroid after Polaroid affected you the way it did. At first glance its confusing as to what Menner is trying to show, but reading the statement about the work it makes you thinking deeper into what he’s showing. It’s not about just pictures inside a home. It turns into a story about these peoples lives and how putting the scenario of the exact moment after they took the picture is scary because you know that the Stasi just tore the homes apart limb from limb to find anything they could to incriminate the people that owned those homes.

This project really brought attention to the issue of privacy. It can break down to what is now happening here in the U.S. at the moment with the government hacking our phones and how we are losing our right to privacy. With Simon Menner doing this project, there wouldn’t be a surprise if he thought about that issue throughout his whole process in making it. If that intention was at all relevant, he definitely got mine.

Overall I thought the project was a success. Turning Polaroids into c-prints and keeping them the original size was aesthetically pleasing and a good decision for reproducing. Also his selection of images was fantastic because he gets some small details that a lot of people would miss like this one sticker or magnet that is shown. It shows that they really got into the smallest parts of a home. Simon Menner really portrayed something interesting and I’m glad he did. 

 WEBSITE: www.clarissabonet.com

  Archive State

Feat: Arianna Arcara and Luca Santese

Simon Menner/ David Oresick/ Thomas Sauvin/ Akram Zaatari

                What is considered photographic art? Or more so, what makes a photograph art? Is it art the second the shutter is clicked, is it art when you post it to Facebook or Instagram, is it art when it’s hung up in your mom’s hallway or when you frame it and place it in a gallery? For a second lets consider it art when the intent is to be art.

            Archive State is an exhibition that includes artists who created their projects with intent, and that intent was to incorporate only found images, borrowed from the web, bought from silver recyclers in China, found discarded images or even images from an old government spy agency.

            Thomas Sauvin has collected over 500,000 image negatives over the past three years from a recycling center in Beijing, where he buys them for their price in silver they contain. The images within the negatives are mostly from the 1980’s through the early 2000’s when disposable cameras were at their height. Because of this dynamic many of these images are snapshots of vacations, of newborn babies, and of purchases the people in the images were proud of. Sauvin has done an amazing edit to create a coherent project that creates the idea that each image was taking by the same photographer. Sauvin also co-created Recycled, which is an installation of three small videos and a pile of crinkled pictures at the entrance of the MOCP.  You can check out Sauvin’s book to purchase, here.

            Through a small open door at the end of the main floor to the left you will find a video piece by David Oresick titled, Soldiers in Their Youth. In this video, which runs about 20 minutes long, Oresick has created an edited montage of war videos he has acquired from YouTube. These videos include loved ones sending videos to their families and spouses, videos of soldiers on down time, singing and pranking each other, and becomes more and more serious clips. Videos waiting for soldiers to return home, actual firefights, and men praying to make it out alive. The video is meant to create a different viewpoint for those of us who have no exposure to war and to break away from the media’s skewed reports with their own agendas. It’s very much worth the sit to watch through the whole video and question everything you believe about war and it’s toll on those directly and indirectly involved. If you can’t make it be sure to check out the full video on his website, here.

  Still from Solider in Their Youth

                Up the stairs is a project created by Simon Menner, who worked with materials from STASI, which was the Democratic Republic’s State Security Service; a spy agency much like the CIA or KGB, but bigger proportionately to the size of the population. This project consists of polaroid pictures of house searches meant so the agents could put the house back exactly like they found it, images that were meant to show agents how to display information through body language, images on how to disguise yourself to blend in, pictures from tailing people of interest and spies taking pictures of spies. Menner’s project does a great job bringing the different elements together and is actually quite comical when thought without the idea of a more sinister past purpose. It’s intent seems much more light than that of Oresick’s project.

Arianna Arcara and Luca Santese created a project based in Detroit, Michigan using found materials in vacant houses and around the city. Akram Zaatari’s project created a viewpoint on cultural and political conditions in Arab Countries using images, documents and videos.

I was not able to fully view either of these exhibits but highly recommend them. You can check out the MOCP website, here, for more information.

  Archive State is a current exhibit at the MOCP, 600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL. It runs from Jan 21- April 6, 2014.

  MOCP Hours: Mon-Saturday 10am-5pm

Sunday 12-5pm

Terry Evans

              BOOM! Goes the dynamite! Or in this case, “North Dakota’s Oil Boom”

Terry Evans and Elizabeth Farnsworth first caught wind of what would eventually become Fractured: North Dakota’s Oil Boom, back in June of 2011. A project that started as an unknown but quickly turned into something very “issue oriented” said Evans.

            This project became something that had to be done.  Evans knew she had to document what was happening in North Dakota and did so over the course of about seven trips over the course of a few years.

Evans wanted to show all sides of the story, not just those being affected negatively or positively, she needed to show all of it. At the Field Museum, where the exhibit is currently being displayed, the room is set up on three walls, and the entrance is set up like a front porch. A wood structure and small seating is placed so you walk into the space through the “porch”.

On the right wall was the section titled, White Earth: Black Gold and showed the families and areas that were being treated with neglect and creating long-term damaging effects to them. These families land was being taken over by drilling companies because they do not own the mineral rights, which overpower the land rights when it comes to who can do what to the land. This process is causing damage to “virgin prairie” and it is making the land owners sad to see it not being taken care of.

    To the left was the section titled, Roses and Money: Beneficiaries of the Boom. Which included individuals who greatly gained from the boom. Men who owned mineral rights, CEOs of companies doing the fracking, and so on. These were the people, not right or wrong, good or bad, that make a living because of the deposits in North Dakota.

            The back wall, which was bar far the biggest included Terry Evans aerial shots of the land, the trucks, the oil plots, and the damages to the prairies. She also photographed individuals that she titled “Boomers”.

These are the people who are just along for the ride, everyday people affected by the boom. Most of these people she shot outside of restaurants and lunch stops, using a Canon 5D Mkii with an 85mm lens. Evans said she shot countless images and had to edit down to what you see here.

            Overall the exhibition displays a true image of what is going on in North Dakota; the ups and downs, the everyday, the damage and the creation of prosperity.

            The show dates are Fri June 7,2013- Sun Jul 20,2014 so make sure you check out the show at the Field Museum in Chicago.  You can find more information at the Museums website, here. 

Chicago Style: David Weinberg Gallery: Dec 6-Feb 15

              White onions, sweet relish, tomato, sport peppers, a dill pickle, a dash of celery salt and some yellow mustard, all placed with a hot dog in between a warm bun; that’s Chicago Style. But that’s not what Chicago Style at the Weinberg Gallery was about. This exhibition was just as diverse as the ingredients in a Chicago style hot dog. 

            Chicago Style was a group exhibition with 34 artists having work shown, all in their own style. The images were selected by a joining of David Weinberg Photography and The Coat Check, which is a curatorial project directed by Matthew Avignone. The work being shown in the gallery was as varied as it was displayed; Large prints, framed images, miniscule pictures framed and set on pedestals, all were displayed in one of three rooms.

            When walking into the Weinberg Gallery the first thing you notice is a rather large Chicago Style print, in which the text of the image was written in mustard. It pops right into your eyes and sets you up to explore the rest of the gallery. Mr. Avignone curated this show masterfully, creating a flow and sense of “Chicago” through many artists’ works. As you turn to your right from the entrance there is art to your left, to your right and at the far end of the room. Images of varying sizes, hand made photo books, and a large triptych created from different artists work were at the far end.

              Around the corner at the far end were two smaller rooms, both filled with more beautiful images. Some black and white, some dashed with a bit of color, and even some experimental images printed of mirrors were displayed. Each room had a feel in which the curator pieced together wonderfully with the images.

            The showing is now over but you can still check out the images at The David Weinberg Gallery Website. 

             “The Sochi Project”is a body of work created by Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen. The work encompasses photographs printed on newsprint, photographic books, and journalistic books as well, all going back to 2009 when the project was first started. The two have considered what they are doing as “slow journalism”, they have gone back to the region many times over the past few years to continue contact with their subjects and to document the changes in the area.

            This project set out to tell the story of this place; an area in which the Olympics were going to be held, and since have, and the juxtaposition of conflict and poverty, and beauty in the surrounding areas. “The Sochi Project” looks more closely at the people and communities than documenting the Olympic aspects of the area. The images focus on people of Abkhazia and the Caucuses, both dealing with many darker things than the Winter Olympics.

             Currently DePaul University’s Art Museum is showing “The Sochi Project”. With Greg Harris behind the curating, the project has been brought to life with the selections made for the space. The photographs are being displayed throughout the museum, printed on both newspaper (affixed to the wall with wheat glue) and larger prints framed to highlight certain subjects. Towards the rear of the first main viewing room is a side project of va Bruggen and Hornstra’s titled “Sochi Singers”. The museum is also throwing it’s own karaoke party this Friday, February 28th from 8-10 pm. You can view their page here.

           With the unique choice to wheat glue the images to the walls it makes these prints destined for destruction. It’s something the artists wanted in terms of aesthetics and for financial reasons since these images were being shipped internationally. The images were never meant to be a tangible newspaper either; the pages are not in a certain order with many images and text needing more than one full page placed next to one another to create a display.

            You can see more of “The Sochi Project” at its website here, where you can read more in depth about the project, buy posters, books and even newsprints made for the show.