Collection: Brought, Bought and Stolen
Review by Stephanie Nadeau
When Joseph Beuys imagined Social Sculpture in the 1960s, he freed creativity from the history of art. He pictured society as a creative collaboration, a work of art that is continually re-produced as each individual finds his own way forward, creating culture by making the world habitable. His politics expanded the scope of art to include social change, and declared creativity a matter of responsible public practice.
What are the implications of that image on the art world now? Certainly there is still something called Art that is the purview of the trained artist and the intellectual, a sphere of inquiry that progresses in the institution and thrives in the marketplace. The gallery system is still framing that inquiry, naming the outsiders and indexing the stars. The struggle to broaden the scope and reach of the art scene in Chicago has had everything to do with envisioning an alternative to this system.
Alternative exhibition spaces thrive in this city. Some host regular programming, while some spaces spring up unexpectedly for a short while before returning to their former states as living rooms and studios. Almost all of them are independently funded and most are artist-run. Their presence in the city distances creative production from a strictly commercial context, and allows artists the freedom to make and exhibit work that is uncertain and risky. New networks are created, collaborations fostered, and discussions facilitated, charging Chicago art culture with a spirit of making and creating that is useful, open, and aligned with Beuysian artistic praxis.
The DIY Chicago art scene has recently expanded by one more venue, accepting into its many variegated folds a small space in the West Loop called Spoke. Tucked above ThreeWalls on the 3rd floor of the 119 Peoria Street building, Spoke is remarkably well positioned to offer challenging programming to a mainstream art audience.
Co-founded by Monica Herrera, Rachel Moore, Heather Mullins, and Rana Siegel, Spoke aims to challenge and re-invent the role of the traditional art gallery, by providing a platform for a diverse range of creative people, projects, and endeavors of all kinds. Their inaugural show, Collection: Brought, Bought and Stolen, is an exhibit by Canadian artists Sarah Febbraro and Jesse Levine, who have decided to use the gallery to exhibit their personal collections.
Levine performed a sample of his music collection at the opening, remixing and manipulating it with added effects and keyboards. In a very nostalgic gesture he also created a mixed CD of songs from his collection, available at Spoke throughout the month.
Febbraro installed 59 works of art acquired as gifts or garage sale purchases, bought on the street, in thrift stores, or rescued from the trash. Comprised of paintings, drawings, collages, a finger puppet, street art and memorabilia, the collection hangs on two walls in the gallery, filling them completely in an earnest and cluttered array. The objects have been arranged on the walls en masse, without labels or identification, too close to one another to be considered individually.
Her collection champions the novice and the outsider, and is political in the way that an artist’s living room might be. A beautifully hand-drawn poster of Barack Obama hangs near handy-craft Christmas tree ornaments, opposite a colored pencil Spiderman drawing from an artist on Monroe Street, pinned up under a large and terrible oil painting of a leering, green baby.
Taste is not the validating context for the work in this exhibition. In fact the work is not the work in this exhibition. Febbraro and Levine have framed their collections within the gallery as a gesture intended to broaden the definition of artistic practice, allowing the scope of theirs to include the quotidian ways in which they accumulate and value the creative work of others.
December 6, 2008 @ 2p.m.
Tour @ Two
The limited edition of CD's by Sarah Febbraro and Jesse Levine to benefit Spoke will be available during the event.
November 21, 2008
Sarah Febbraro & Jesse Levine
Collection: Brought, Bought, and Stolen
Opening Friday, November 21, 2008
7:00-9:00p.m.
Live music by Jesse Levine at 8:00p.m
Collection: Brought, Bought and Stolen is an exhibit and performance by artist Sarah Febbraro and musician Jesse Levine. Febbraro exhibits her personal art collection that comes from art given to her as gifts, found at garage sales and thrift stores, sold on the street and art that students or peers threw away. By positioning herself as an artist and collector, Febbraro diminishes the gap between buyer and maker, exposes art that was not intended for the gallery and revels how to have access without having a lot of money. Jesse Levine resamples the music he collects and collages it in new ways in his live performances; playing keyboards over it, looping and adding affects like delay, distortion and ring modulation.
Tours of Collection will be given by Sarah Febbraro on Saturday November 29 & December 6 at 2:00pm
Tours of Collection will be given by Sarah Febbraro on Saturday November 29 & December 6 at 2:00pm
October 23, 2008
"What is your ideal space?"
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
7:30-10:00p.m.
We will open Thursday with our first event, an open forum asking, "What is your ideal space?"
With refreshments and conversation you'll be asked to write your comments on paper pinned to the walls. This will be used to wallpaper our space, transforming dialogue into form and serving as a document of our first invitation for conversation.
A new space by Monica Herrera, Rachel Moore, Heather Mullins, and Rana Siegel.
Application
Spoke
at the intersection of ideas, dialogue and change
Situated in Chicago’s West Loop gallery district, Spoke is a small collaborative enterprise interested in maintaining a spirit of resourcefulness, experimentation, access rather than exclusion, and interaction. We are dedicated to providing opportunities for creative individuals and groups to produce unique and innovative projects, events, performances, workshops, exhibitions and creative endeavors of all kinds.
As we excitedly begin our inaugural year, Spoke invites you to submit your creative proposals!
Proposals are encouraged to be experimental and range in genre and length of time (1 day/night to 1 month, weekly or bi-weekly).
Entry Deadline: January 15, 2009 (receipt of all application materials)
Exhibition/Event Dates: Between February and August 2009
Notification: Applicants will be notified by Feb. 1st
Entry Fee: $5.00 cash donation *all donations directly support Spoke’s programming
Selection Process: Applicants will be selected by the 4 founders of Spoke. Once accepted, the artists will meet to determine scheduling needs.
Contact: Please direct all questions to spokechicago@gmail.com.
Application Instructions:
Please include the following in your application packet. We suggest you either visit the space or view it online (www.SpokeChicago.blogspot.com) before you submit your proposal. Also, please see terms for participants to better understand the needs and ideas of the space during events/exhibitions.
1. Application form/cover sheet
2. Personal/artist statement (max. 1 page)
3. Short proposal of suggested event, project or exhibition (max. 1 page)
4. Current résumé
5. 10-15 examples of work including images and/or 3-5 minute audio/video or web-based projects. All images should be put into a powerpoint labeled with your name. Each image/project should include its title, date, description and other important information including websites or blogs.
*Please include your name and contact information on each form.
Please send all entries by January 15, 2009 to: Spoke
119 N. Peoria #3D
Chicago, IL 60607
Spoke terms for participants
1. Spoke will provide:
a. A highly trafficked space
b. Staff during open hours
c. Electronic mailings & announcements
d. Printed posters for the event
e. Basic tools for installing
2. Participants are responsible for:
a. Any printed materials, other than posters, if desired (postcards, etc.)
b. Refreshments for events and openings
c. Insurance (Spoke does not provide insurance for objects or individuals in the space and is not responsible for loss or damage)
d. Space maintenance (Participant must return the space to its original condition: repairing holes, repainting, etc.)
e. Design/Limited Edition*
*Spoke will not take any percentage of participants’ work sold in the gallery. In exchange, to help offset the cost of the space, we ask that each participant either 1) create a design for the exhibition/event to donate to Spoke that will then be used to produce a limited edition of objects based on reuse or 2) the artist will work with us to create an edition of hand made objects. This limited edition will be for sale to support the space. Each artist and member of Spoke will receive one of these items free of charge.
In addition, there will be events held in the space during the exhibitions (such as meetings, dinners, conversations, and readings). Each person(s) that use the space will need to work with Spoke to ensure that there will be space for these events to take place. Participants will be notified prior to each event.
Spoke entry application form & cover sheet
Please print clearly!
Name/s: ________________________________________________________________
Street Address: ___________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip____________________________________________________________
Telephone: ______________________________________________________________
E-mail Address: ___________________________________________________________
Web Site/s: ______________________________________________________________
Checklist
__ Application form/cover sheet
__ $5 cash donation**
__ 10-15 examples & descriptions of work or 3-5 audio/video clips in Powerpoint format
__ Personal/artist statement (max. 1 page)
__ Short proposal of suggested event, project or exhibition (max. 1 page)
__ Current résumé
*Please include your name and contact information on each form.
**All donations directly support Spoke’s programming
at the intersection of ideas, dialogue and change
Situated in Chicago’s West Loop gallery district, Spoke is a small collaborative enterprise interested in maintaining a spirit of resourcefulness, experimentation, access rather than exclusion, and interaction. We are dedicated to providing opportunities for creative individuals and groups to produce unique and innovative projects, events, performances, workshops, exhibitions and creative endeavors of all kinds.
As we excitedly begin our inaugural year, Spoke invites you to submit your creative proposals!
Proposals are encouraged to be experimental and range in genre and length of time (1 day/night to 1 month, weekly or bi-weekly).
Entry Deadline: January 15, 2009 (receipt of all application materials)
Exhibition/Event Dates: Between February and August 2009
Notification: Applicants will be notified by Feb. 1st
Entry Fee: $5.00 cash donation *all donations directly support Spoke’s programming
Selection Process: Applicants will be selected by the 4 founders of Spoke. Once accepted, the artists will meet to determine scheduling needs.
Contact: Please direct all questions to spokechicago@gmail.com.
Application Instructions:
Please include the following in your application packet. We suggest you either visit the space or view it online (www.SpokeChicago.blogspot.com) before you submit your proposal. Also, please see terms for participants to better understand the needs and ideas of the space during events/exhibitions.
1. Application form/cover sheet
2. Personal/artist statement (max. 1 page)
3. Short proposal of suggested event, project or exhibition (max. 1 page)
4. Current résumé
5. 10-15 examples of work including images and/or 3-5 minute audio/video or web-based projects. All images should be put into a powerpoint labeled with your name. Each image/project should include its title, date, description and other important information including websites or blogs.
*Please include your name and contact information on each form.
Please send all entries by January 15, 2009 to: Spoke
119 N. Peoria #3D
Chicago, IL 60607
Spoke terms for participants
1. Spoke will provide:
a. A highly trafficked space
b. Staff during open hours
c. Electronic mailings & announcements
d. Printed posters for the event
e. Basic tools for installing
2. Participants are responsible for:
a. Any printed materials, other than posters, if desired (postcards, etc.)
b. Refreshments for events and openings
c. Insurance (Spoke does not provide insurance for objects or individuals in the space and is not responsible for loss or damage)
d. Space maintenance (Participant must return the space to its original condition: repairing holes, repainting, etc.)
e. Design/Limited Edition*
*Spoke will not take any percentage of participants’ work sold in the gallery. In exchange, to help offset the cost of the space, we ask that each participant either 1) create a design for the exhibition/event to donate to Spoke that will then be used to produce a limited edition of objects based on reuse or 2) the artist will work with us to create an edition of hand made objects. This limited edition will be for sale to support the space. Each artist and member of Spoke will receive one of these items free of charge.
In addition, there will be events held in the space during the exhibitions (such as meetings, dinners, conversations, and readings). Each person(s) that use the space will need to work with Spoke to ensure that there will be space for these events to take place. Participants will be notified prior to each event.
Spoke entry application form & cover sheet
Please print clearly!
Name/s: ________________________________________________________________
Street Address: ___________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip____________________________________________________________
Telephone: ______________________________________________________________
E-mail Address: ___________________________________________________________
Web Site/s: ______________________________________________________________
Checklist
__ Application form/cover sheet
__ $5 cash donation**
__ 10-15 examples & descriptions of work or 3-5 audio/video clips in Powerpoint format
__ Personal/artist statement (max. 1 page)
__ Short proposal of suggested event, project or exhibition (max. 1 page)
__ Current résumé
*Please include your name and contact information on each form.
**All donations directly support Spoke’s programming
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