We at Spoke are happy and excited to begin our new programming series.
Our Project Residency Program is geared towards projects and art practices that are socially engaged, process oriented, participatory and multi-layered. The Project Residents can treat the malleable project space as a laboratory, test-site, classroom, studio, experimental gallery or social space. We encourage our residents to take time to explore and experiment without pressure for creating a completed work or final product.
March - Vince Gaulin (details coming soon)
May - Christopher Tourre (details coming soon)
Please check out our future tab to see what other events are happening at Spoke.
Spoke: A Collective Studio Practice
October 16, 2010 - October 31, 2010
Open House and Reception: Thursday, October 28th, 6-9pm
As our group of artists grow and we expand our studio space at Spoke, we have decided to use the old Surrealist game of "The Exquisite Corpse" as a tool to get to know one another better as artists. We all have to work within the same space and thus see this collaborative artwork exploring, in a physical way, the power of our collective "studio mind".
This project reveals a "behind the scenes" look at the working process by a group of artists. This unique collaborative effort reflects and questions the collaboration of interdisciplinary artists who usually work alone. This project also examines how group dynamics affect the creative process and explores how individuals relate and respond to the process of collaboration and group work.
Using a set of guidelines, a collective artwork will be made describing the shared atmosphere of the studio and exhibition/project spaces that are Spoke. Each artist will have two opportunities to install, interact and respond to the collective artwork over a two week span of time. Seeing the project as a weaving of practices and a material conversation, all the artists will come together after the first week to discuss and reflect on the project thus far before resuming for the second week.
List of artists, their working schedules, and open hours:
Saturday, October 16, Jeroen Nelemans, 12-5pm
Sunday, October 17, Heather Mullins, no open hours
Monday, October 18, Deirdre Colgan, no open hours
Tuesday, October 19, Kristin Mariani, 12-5pm
Wednesday, October 20, Rana Siegel, 5-8pm
Thursday, October 21, Jean Alexander Frater, 1-7pm
Friday, October 22, Closed for group discussion
Saturday, October 23, Jeroen Nelemans, 12-5pm, Deirdre Colgan, 5-8pm
Sunday, October 24, Kristin Mariani, no open hours
Monday, October 25, Heather Mullins, 12-5pm
Tuesday, October 26, Rana Siegel, 5-8pm
Wednesday, October 27, Jean Alexander Frater, 1-7pm
Spoke: A Collective Studio Practice is part of Chicago Artists Month 2010, the fifteenth annual cerebration of Chicago's vibrant visual art community coordinated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. For more information, visit www.chicagoartistsmonth.org
Cairo On the Length | Amira Hanafi
Cairo On the Length
A Project by Amira Hanafi
Spoke Chicago
October 3 through October 15, 2010
Calendar of Events
Sunday, October 3 1:00 – 4:00pm
Walk #1, The public is invited to walk in the West Loop and collect material documentation, followed by discussion at Spoke
Thursday, October 7 7:00 – 10:00pm
Readings of work by Chicago writers who responded to walks performed in Cairo
Saturday, October 9 1:00 – 4:00pm
Walk #2, The public is invited to walk in the West Loop and collect material documentation, followed by discussion at Spoke
Friday, October 15 6:00 – 10:00pm
Closing reception
Gallery open hours (or walk by appointment)
Mondays, Tuesdays & Fridays 1:00 – 7:00pm
On the back of every U.S. dollar bill, there is a depiction of an incomplete pyramid with an all-seeing eye hovering over it. The image appropriates two ancient Egyptian symbols: the Eye of Horus and the Great Pyramid. Inscribed underneath, Novus Ordo Seclorum—“New Order of the Age”—an era in which Pharaonic culture has faded, yet the American psyche remains tangled in an archaic and mystified imaginary of Egypt.
In the days following September 11, 2001, Clear Channel Communications distributed a memo to 1,200 of their radio stations. Along with songs referencing bombs, bullets and airplanes, the Bangles’ 1980s pop hit “Walk Like An Egyptian” was included as “lyrically questionable.” Executives strongly suggested that DJs avoid playing it.
Do these instants represent what Cairo looks like from America? What does the city look like close up? Cairo On The Length is a project that taps the imaginations of over 50 people to construct a collective image of contemporary Cairo. Viewers are invited on a collaborative passage through the city, guided by both locals and outsiders, via a collection of photographs, maps, drawings, texts, videos, and an evening of readings.
Over four months, the artist, a citizen of the United States and of Egypt, drifted for 100 hours with 30 different people in Cairo. Some of the walkers had spent their entire lives in Egypt; some were tourists who had been in the city for a day. Each of 28 segments of the walk began from the end point of the previous segment; conversation and encounters on the walks dictated their paths.
Each segment was documented with photographs and with writing composed by the walkers, as well as through a process of call and response with Chicago artists and writers. Over the course of the four-month project, the artist sent photographs from each walk to Chicago artists and writers, requesting a response in whichever form each individual saw fit.
During the project at Spoke, the artist will host walks from the space through the West Loop. The public is invited to join in a process of observation, collection, and discussion about our own evolving city. The materials produced from these walks will be sent to artists in Egypt, who will in turn create responses. Through this cycle of exchange, a collective image of Chicago’s West Loop will be produced.
Walkers
Ahmad Shawkat, Anne-Marie McManus, Amr El Kafrawy, Azumi Hasegewa, Belle Gironda, Chitra Kalyani, Chris Marrs, Dagmar Stelkens, Doaa Fatouh, Ehab Effat, Elizabeth Metzger Sampson, Hamdy El-Gazzar, Hamdy Reda, Hoda El Shakry, Hossam Elouan, Hussein Mahmoud, Ian Parks, Jack Shenker, Leila El Shakry, Linda Cleary, Mia Jankowicz, Mohamed Alaa, Mohamed Fatouh, Mona Madgavkar, Nick Rowlands, Ramy Yahya, Rana, Shannon Tyman, Shayma Aziz, Stephanie Matti
Respondents
AD Jameson, Aurora Tabar, Ben Lipkin, Calvin Forbes, Caroline Picard, Devin King, Edward Salem, Elizabeth Cross, Ellen Rothenberg, Eric Vandemark, Ira Murfin, Laura Goldstein, Mark Booth, Megan Milks, Michael Thomas, Michelle Tupko, Rachel Araujo, Raja Halwani, Rana Siegel, Robin Morrissey, Rowland Saifi, Sally Alatalo, Shannon Schmidt, Stephanie Nadeau, Stephen Hastings-King
Contact
Artist Contact
Amira Hanafi
(908) 644-3314
The Ways of Connecting the Floor to the Ceiling | Elizabeth Metzger Sampson and Shannon Schmidt
Exhibition: September 1 - 15
Opening: Friday, September 10, 6-9pm
Reading: Tuesday, September 14, 7:30pmSeptember 1st - 9th: Open Studio Hours
Weekdays (excluding Friday) open from 7:30 - 10 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 3rd by appointment only
Saturday, Sept. 4th open from 2 - 5 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 5th by appointment only
The Ways of Connecting the Floor to the Ceiling investigates the creative process through the use of material and language. An installation or a material component of process, tufts of raw wool and hair will morph into an abstract surface of felted fibers, growing out of the architecture and spreading throughout the gallery. The artists will open the gallery to visitors as they construct the space, ultimately creating an environment of process. The visitors will become participants as they move through the space, creating a collective path by felting the raw materials on the floor with their feet. As the space congeals, a reading will occur at the end of the show, bringing writers whose process is evident in their final product into the space, to build upon the environment of experiment, chance, intention, and the spirit of continuum.
The Ways of Connecting the Floor to the Ceiling is a collaborative exhibition by Elizabeth Metzger Sampson and Shannon Schmidt, both writers and artists living and working in Chicago. The exhibition is ongoing from September 1st to the 15th with an opening on Friday, September 10th and a reading on Tuesday, September 14th.
Replication Machines, Territorial Markers and Preliminary Drawings | Mark Porter
August 2-13, 2010
Reception, Friday August 6, 7-9pm
Gallery hours by appointment.
Spoke presents Replication Machines, Territorial Markers and Preliminary Drawings, an exhibition of recent kinetic sculptures and mixed media drawings by Chicago based visual artist Mark Porter.
Through the fusion of found and custom made objects, Porter creates mechanical prototypes which mimic human and animal behavior as well as natural phenomenon. Emphasizing the quality of hand-made object, Porter's sculptures serve as performative prototypes, which embrace experimentation and the relationship between inventor and invention, as well as invention and user.
___________________________________________
For more information, or to make an appointment please email Spoke or markwilliamporter (at) yahoo (dot) com
All works in the exhibit were created with funding generously provided by The Illinois Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and City of Chicago.
Reception, Friday August 6, 7-9pm
Gallery hours by appointment.
Through the fusion of found and custom made objects, Porter creates mechanical prototypes which mimic human and animal behavior as well as natural phenomenon. Emphasizing the quality of hand-made object, Porter's sculptures serve as performative prototypes, which embrace experimentation and the relationship between inventor and invention, as well as invention and user.
___________________________________________
For more information, or to make an appointment please email Spoke or markwilliamporter (at) yahoo (dot) com
All works in the exhibit were created with funding generously provided by The Illinois Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and City of Chicago.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
