A:LIST A Project of the Hyde Park Art Center

Adelheid Mers

Artist Information

Born: 1960, Düsseldorf, Germany
Currently Resides: Chicago, IL

Contact Information:
adelheidmers (at) earthlink (dot) net
http://adelheidmers.org

Medium(s) Worked in:
Installation
Graphic Design
Sculpture
Drawing

Artist CV:
Download File

Available for Commission: Yes

Represented by:
Frühsorge Galerie für Zeichnung, Berlin, Germany

Education:
1988-89, University of Chicago- student at large, Graduate School, Committee on the Visual Arts, in assoc. with a grant from the DAAD
1987, MFA, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany
1985, Universities of Düsseldorf and Cologne, Germany for German Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy, Pedagogy

HPAC Exhibitions

2006, Takeover
2005, Just Good Art
2003, Not Just Another Pretty Face
2002, Just Good Art
2000, Just Good Art
1998, Not in My Lobby You don’t
1997, Just Good Art

Artist Statement

Düsseldorf, ca. 1978: I remember diagramming a bacteriophage on the blackboard from my biology teacher’s description, a moment that gave me immense satisfaction. Later, I made diagrams in an attempt to read Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus”. During my first year at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf I created sculptures and drawings that mirrored how I read Benjamin Lee Whorf’s “Language, Thought, Reality.” I continued to think about how to bring my fascination with reading into my work as an artist.

These sculptures and installations were trying to grasp how a person is cognitively intertwined with the world.

Chicago, 1988: After I graduated from the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, I briefly became a student-at-large at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Visual Art. I continued to study the history of ideas, developed deeper interests in theories of language and communication, in aspects of Phenomenology, and Pragmatism. When I prepared to teach, I organized many of my notes in diagrams, without considering it to be part of my artwork. I worked in the studio with field-like, open, felt and wood shapes on the floor, calling them “portable landscapes”. These sculptures and installations were trying to grasp how a person is cognitively intertwined with the world. When I began to project those shapes on the ground with light, it became possible to observe audience reactions to the immaterial boundaries I presented, but also to provoke activities by colleagues.

In 2000, I was given a semester residency at Columbia College. I set up a room with a very simple light installation as a “think tank”, where I planned to work with students on their ideas, and to develop my work as well. I studied Edward Tufte’s books and as a first, formal experiment I fashioned a simple map that explored the relations among areas of study.

Trying to better grasp the implications of this move to the mapping of ideas, I turned to further study about the relations of visual and literal cognition and representation. For the 2001 CAA conference in Chicago I wrote a paper on “Applied Aesthetics”, and also diagrammed each paragraph for the presentation.. For an exhibition that I devised in collaboration with Elisabeth Condon in 2001,”A Collaborative Fusion”, I entirely abandoned the use of light and contributed diagrams after six books that address issues of cooperation and/or how values emerge, reflecting the theme of the show. Around that time I also assembled a digital retrospective of my own work, which helped me to clarify some of the things described here and eventually led to an exhibition that invited other artists to do the same.

Since then I have diagrammed essays and books by various authors whose ideas engage me, including Vilém Flusser and George Lakoff. For a public art commission in collaboration with Patrick McGee, I devised diagrams about solar energy, and I am now beginning to diagram institutions. I will create a large, 20’ × 20’ map of Chicago’s Hyde Park Art Center and its interaction with its communities for the opening of the new facility in 2006.

All the while the classroom has continued to be a hub for developing and testing ideas, and teaching is a crucial part of my practice.

All the while the classroom has continued to be a hub for developing and testing ideas, and teaching is a crucial part of my practice. I have also continued to organize exhibitions that inquire about foundations of art practices. My continued inclination is to approach my investigations not as an academic striving for an objective point of view, but as a biased participant in the enterprise trying to achieve something more akin to a temporary bird’s eye view.

Artist Bio

Adelheid Mers is a visual artist living in Chicago. She was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she graduated from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She moved to Chicago in 1988 with a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service to attended the University of Chicago. She has exhibited and lectured widely, curated and co-organized exhibitions, and received grants from the DAAD, the British Council, the NEA , the SAIC and the City of Chicago. She has been teaching at various colleges and universities, among others as a Visiting Lecturer at Northwestern University and at the University of Chicago, and currently is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, where she teaches in the Art History and Criticism, Visual and Critical Studies, Exhibition Studies, and Sculpture Programs. She serves on the editorial/curatorial boards of WhiteWalls and of Gallery 312.

Press & Publications

Past Commissions

All with Patrick McGee

Additional Information

Curatorial/Editorial:

Teaching: