Outposts From The Material World #3
Charles Fox here welcoming you to the third installment of Outposts From The Material World. This week will cover the Museum of Contemporary Art and recent HPAC happenings including the Fryvalry and History of Spaces Panel Discussion.
Last Tuesday, I finally made my way over to the fantastic Museum of Contemporary Art, which is my favorite museum. I had heard a lot about Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition Take Your Time and I was excited to check it out for myself. There was quite a lot going on in the exhibition, and I noticed many contrasting themes emerging during my voyage through the various elements Eliasson so effectively utilizes to fill the vast space. The visitor experience ranges from being sprayed with a refreshing mist to narrowly avoiding being smashed in the cranium by an oscillating fan—or not avoiding it in some cases. Myself and Bradley, who was with me during the visit for his first-ever trip to the MCA, are very tall and we were quite close to being hit by the fan. A guard in the exhibition informed us that this was no illusion: a man taller than ourselves had actually been hit in the head during the exhibition. Bradley, who was engaged in a constant search for meaning during his voyage through Eliasson’s world, remarked “I guess if you get hit in the head, that’s the meaning. That’s a big meaning. A big headache, too.” I found the exhibition to be largely rooted in questioning perception and our subjective responses to external stimuli.
Eliasson wants the exhibition to exist without any cryptic subtext, the meaning being an emphasis on each individual visitor’s experience within its confines, with no “right” or “wrong” answer to just what Take Your Time is actually about. The artist describes one of the themes of the exhibition as “seeing yourself see.” I think he was very effective in executing this desire. Our own perception, normally a very subconscius act, becomes conscious and is constantly being questioned during a visit to Eliasson’s exhibition. Besides perception, I noted an emphasis on the following elements: light/shadow, space/confinement, constance/change, simplicity/complicity, absence/presence and color/colorlessness. The diversity of mediums in which Eliasson works for this exhibition is astounding. There is a wall covered in live moss, many incredible photographs, small sculptural objects, and many other installations—some including sophisticated machinery. Much of the exhibition is difficult to categorize; although “sculpture” is a very easy catch-all term to toss out, “experiential environment” seems more appropriate in this case to describe much of the artwork.
Visitors may leave Eliasson’s ingeniously constructed world with a newly-found questioning of our understanding of the world and our surroundings. Through the artist’s extensive use of mirrors, lights and reflections, the viewer is physically added to the equation. There is an exchange going on; by being swung at by ceiling fans, sprayed by mist, and reflected in mirrors, one is pulled into the environment rather than casually passing through, which is usually the case when navigating an exhibition. The end result is that you are the art in Take Your Time. The exhibition could not exist without the physical and psychological input of visitors and their accompanying subjective experiences.
This past Saturday, June 27, we had a very unique event here at HPAC. It was called “Fryvalry,” and it pitted two people from the local art scene against each other in a greasily-heated battle of fried cuisine. Kevin Jennings manned the meat fryer and Philip Von Zweck divided his time between vegan and vegetarian fryers. Pitting carnivores against herbivores is certainly an interesting social/culinary exercise. I always feel like I am questioning vegetarian’s lifestyles and affirming my carnivorous ways. Anyone who knows me well is aware that it’s not a good idea to be around me if I haven’t had enough protein!
The event was extremely well-attended. The weather was good, and people filled the area in front of HPAC with merriment and extremely bizarre choices of items to fry.
Here we see Phillip von Zweck making his special beer batter to dunk all those veggies in before their submersion in heated corn oil, and an……interesting, shall we say, assortment of foods piling up in preparation to be fried.
This is Anna, who was very excited about the Fryvalry, enjoying a deep-fried Oreo cookie.
Jackie Jones nabbed the camera from me during the event and shot most of the following pictures.
Britton and Francesca
Kevin Jennings serves up a plate of meaty goodness.
Exhibitions Assistants getting fried on the job!
Here’s where things really start to get savage. Michael chose to deep fry a McDonald’s double cheeseburger. I have to admit that the aforementioned item of food is one of my favorite things in the world, but deep frying it? I was not sure what to think. With my arteries screaming “DON’T DO IT CHARLES!!!” from deep in my chest, I decided to take a bite. It was…interesting. Really not bad, but I will not be making a habit of eating this type of cuisine.
Drumsticks headin’ for a breadin’
Choppin’ it up with Britton
Gettin’ savage again. This time, the subject of my savagery is a deep-fried, bacon wrapped Snickers bar. Incredibly repulsive yet somehow delicious was definitely the main thread running through the Fryvalry!
Fryvals!
Here are some shots from the History of Spaces Panel Discussion, which occurred on June 30 and examined Chicago’s history of Do-It-Yourself, artist-run spaces, featuring panelists Lynne Warren, Barbara Koenen, Lane Reylea, and Michael Ryan.
Chuck staying hydrated
MCA Curator Lynne Warren. She explained how Chicago’s history of having an abundance of artist-run spaces was born from practicality rather than idealism. According to Warren, with more young artists per capita in our community than others and many staying around after art school, there is a resulting impetus for artists to seek new exhibition opportunities because the traditional commercial galleries and museums simply do not have enough space for everyone.
The Panel
On Tuesday, I had my first day of collage class with Shawn Dubay here at HPAC. In the last couple months I have embraced collage as an art form that I wish to explore, but I have only completed two pieces thus far. I have been collecting raw materials and supplies, but with about seventy hours of commitments per week this summer the last thing I have had time for is creating art. I think this class will be just what I need in my life, two and a half hours blocked out each week to unwind and be creative, while learning in a stimulating classroom environment. Here is an image of my teacher and classmates hard at work on the first day of class.
That’s all for this week. Thank you for reading! Be sure to drop by HPAC tonight, Thursday July 2, at 6 pm for The Exchange as Chicago’s own Kevin Coval and other writers give impromptu performances in response to the work of other artists. Tomorrow, there will be a Youth Arts and Activism Roundtable from 1-3 pm. Events are always free and fun!