December 2009

SPEECHLESS

In Sudan, Lucy Ahmed Hussein received a one-month jail sentence for refusing to acknowledge her crime of wearing trousers.

In a world of borders, there is one language which easily crosses oceans and translates into legislation and tradition everywhere. That is the language of oppression against women. Made speechless by this overwhelming injustice, the women in my paintings imagine a borderless world where every viewer is invited to become a witness and ally.

These paintings use iconography drawn from history, personal and current events, language and mythology. In each piece, an archetypal female stands “Speechless” at the center. But these images are not stories told again. The figures in the paintings transform their origins and become new. The viewer is brought to an imagined territory where women both wear the scars of their oppression and transcend them. They are the woman next door and the girl in the desert. In a globalized world, they are also you.
My paintings speak of life, not death.

Translating “Speechless” into many different languages, this visual polyglot will leave no viewer untouched.

www.jenniebooth.com

November 2009

Cocoon

I am intrigued with the changes that occur in me when I live in different cultures – Europe, Saudi Arabia, China. With time, my cultural lines begin to blur: the exotic becomes ordinary and what was once familiar becomes foreign. My work is about this transition and change and the feelings that arise during the process. I am wise if I acknowledge them when they surface and lost if I do not. The cocoon is my metaphor for this journey. It is a protective covering, a wrapping; a casing for all that will be changed.

The cocoons in this installation were the result of performances, in which individuals were wrapped in yards and yards of sheer cloth, were sewn into it, forming a cocoon; at the end of the performance they were cut out. The cocoons have been reworked – the remains of this passage – into talismans that hold their stories. Cocoons originating at Jiujiang University, Jiujiang, China and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago are part of the installation.

This work is sponsored in part by Jiujiang University and the Columbia College Chicago Part-time Faculty grant.

www.rosecamastropritchett.com

October 19 – November 15 2009
Dia de los Muertos

“Dia de los Muertos, 2009”
(This installation is on view in the west window.)

Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is an extremely focused tradition in Chicago’s Latin Community. This “ofrenda” is an installation piece in which I express and demonstrate love for those who have passed on. This traditional ofrenda/altar is for my father, Nemecio Herrera who died when I was 9 years old.
The installation work is consistent with Dia de los Muertos, November 2nd.
I believe that the Humboldt Park/Logan Square community will appreciate the traditional style. I grew up on Pulaski Rd. and appreciate the opportunity to give back a bit of myself in this window installation on Armitage Ave.

Lucia Herrera Fortin

October 2009

Weave – An Exploration of Materials

A number of years ago I worked in a nursing home and something happened that dramatically influenced my art – the women there taught me how to knit! I began to explore the medium; knitting with cord, string, rope, and even wire. I created a huge pair of knitting needles (four feet long) and began translating the knitting patterns that I had been taught into large sculptures. I spent a month knitting a pair of cable-stitch mittens large enough to sleep in, which I did! My question was: Where do craft and art overlap?

In this current installation I use a technique that is something between knitting and crocheting. Instead of knitting needles or a crochet hook, I use my fingers. I have chosen array of materials, some conventional and some alternative. My goal is to transform these inert materials, to transcend the everyday.

Schedule of weaving performances:
Friday, October 2, 2009 from 6-8 pm – Opening Reception
Wednesday, October 14 from 1-4 pm
Saturday, October 17 from 1-4 pm
Wednesday, October 28 from 1-4 pm
Saturday, October 31 from 3-6 pm – Closing Reception

www.artiststatement.weebly.com

September 2009

Being (s) Here

Jobs, customs, conduct, repetition, contrasts and the symbiosis of man and nature: my works have diverse references and I want them to speak directly and frankly to the observer. In some works I use question and answer. The discussion throws light on the quest for knowledge, conditions, choices and conclusions.
The piece Being( s ) Here includes approaches which tend to typify my work, such as bundles of fabric, string, sewing threads and wires.
Reusing objects in my work is another aspect of the ideology and philosophy I have chosen to apply and examine. Irony has sometimes been mentioned as a feature of my work, although it is not a conscious aspect of the creative process for me. I see it as an added extra.

What are we asking today, and what answers are we receiving?
Being ( s ) here asks where we are going.
Being ( s ) here is perhaps a naive dream that the earth may be permitted to survive.
Being ( s ) here is about metamorphosis and development. How far have we progressed towards becoming what we should one day be able to be? When will we emerge fully-formed from our cocoon? When will we wake up? Will we wake up?

Þórdís raises Icelandic ponies on her farm in Iceland. Their photos are used in this installation to reference the fragile balance of life man has endangered in the past 100 years.

http://www.toa.is