In a little over a year, the humble Finch Gallery has established itself as a bastion of independent creative thought amidst the Chicago gallery circuit—dedicating their space to one artist at a time, mentoring teens in their college prep school, and crashing the notoriously commercial Artropolis with free original artwork for all. This weekend, the Finch holds its first annual performance festival over two nights that look to be every bit as inclusive, subversive and unexampled as their exhibitions to date.
Festival curators Heather Hartley and Casey Murtaugh invited a handful of artists to create performances inspired by the words "eight," "cage," "magnification," "garden" and "stacking." Video artist Mel Rancho's response is "100 Sunsets," an investigation of the potential drama of mundane actions, superimposing sunset images over her body (or caging them within it) as she executes routine tasks. Liz Wuerffel and Beth Gutelius perform sections of their evening-length ode to the life cycle of an apple in an industrial food system. The Saturday performance will include Sherry Antonini and Basil Abbott's "Overture in Eighths," an abstract musical construction pieced from original text, music and sounds recorded in strip clubs, arcades and on the street. Murtaugh and Hartley will also perform a new version of "Ophelia's Seeds," an exploration of aging and femininity that will appear at the Columbia College Manifest Arts Festival next weekend.
If you come Saturday night, bring along a piece of blue plastic to help build Anni Holm's "Plasti-city," an eight-foot replica of the Chicago skyline constructed from Epson ink cartridge sleeves and knitting. Holm will install the piece throughout the evening, using refuse cast off by the art-making process, while winking at the Chicago Blue Bag recycling program. Be ready on both nights to offer feedback, as most pieces are works in progress.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
