Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson

On the eve of it's closing, I FINALLY went to go see Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson at the MCA Chicago (May1-Sept 13, 2009). That evening following my viewing of the exhibit, I felt emotional. The next morning, again, it was all I could think about. This awe inspiring show was not an exhibit of objects, but an exhibit of experiences. Installations of impressions of light, wind and water rely on the viewer to ultimately embark in a journey of self awareness. This exhibit was truly a sensorial environment. One can not walk into his projects without feeling or thinking. His work consumes you.
Many of these installations affect your perception of color, reflective objects alter spaces and dimensions and simple forms are magnified into seemingly complex forms. Ultimately what this exhibit does is MAKE YOU PRESENT.
Two very memorable experiences include Room for One Colour and 360 Degrees Room for All Colours. Room for One Colour was a hallway of monochromatic lights that affected your perception of color. All who walked in, regardless of what color they were wearing, turned into a sepia colored world. It was almost more fun to stand outside of the entrance and see people change before your eyes. 360 Degrees Room for All Colours was color spectrum that gradually changed your perception of depth and color. The closer you stood to the wall the more it seemed to affect your senses. Is this what an ecstacy trip feels like? I wonder.

Must See: UIC MFA Exhibition April 15th 5-8p.m.

UIC MFA Exhibition will showcase the work of Maria Gaspar, Charlie Deets, Chris Tourre and John-Paul Wolforth on April 15th at Gallery 400, 400 S. Peoria.
I am personally attending to support my friend Maria Gaspar. Gaspar is an inter-disciplinary artist from Chicago. Her work explores and conceptualizes gender, cultural identity & beauty through performance, painting, installations and public art. To learn more about her practice visit http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org/visual-arts/node/360 and http://artpilsen.blogspot.com/2007/08/dilogo-at-national-museum-of-mexican.html.

ACROSS THE DIVIDE Reconsidering the Other

Robert Sill curated a great show at Illinois State Museum's gallery in the Thompson Center. The exhibition that showcased an all star group of artists including Fred Wilson, Kerry James Marshall, Rashid Johnson, Kehinde Wiley, Glenn Ligon, my great friend Ian Weaver and many others tackles on topics that deal with race, religion, politics, and ethnicity. Go see it! You won't be disappointed. It's on view until May 8th.
Kerry James Marshall exhibited a couple of Winslow Homer like watercolors. Always onto pointing out contradictions, Kerry presents African Americans in unlikely representations.
Ian Weaver's work sits in as artifacts to a constructed history of the Black Bottom Community. Ian's desire to document his family history led him to the once existent community that were forced to move to make way for the Dan Ryan Expressway. Like an anthropologist, but with no terrain to excavate, Ian creates a fictionalized account of the Black Bottom Community. Black Power Helmet (as shown above) are one of the artifacts of this community. I personally would love to see his work displayed in a history museum. Maybe in the same fashion that Coco Fuso and Guillermo Gomez Pena presented their Undiscovered Amerindians.