The following images are documentation of a site specific installation for the exhibition, All that Glows in the Dark of Democracy, curated by Kasia Houlihan at Weinberg/Newton Gallery in partnership with the ACLU of Illinois.
Scroll on for the curator’s statement and a wall text that accompanied the piece in the space.
All photographs credited to Evan Jenkins
16x24x40
steam bent white oak
material: pine veneer
photo credit: Robert Chase Heishman
47x47x47
MDF, primer
The figure of Victorine Meurent is extracted from Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe.
11x11
plaster and clay in a basswood frame
Made with an interest in Daphne's story of transformation.
14x13x6
steel
site specific installation for Fourth Ward Project Space
11'x3'x7'
steel
15x15x60
steel, enamel, mdf
16x12x72
steel, copper
The Prairie Box sculpture, takes its inspiration from the American Foursquare home, a popular architectural style from the early 1900’s. The American Foursquare was commonly sold as a ‘kit house.’ It could be purchased through a catalog, delivered across long distances by railway, and built by the homeowners themselves. The popular Midwestern vernacular style was recognized as one of the most affordable homes of its time, and was colloquially referred to as the ‘prairie box.’
This iteration of the Prairie Box was commissioned by the Iowa City Downtown District with the expressed desire for a structure that would provide seating and shade for visitors to the Blackhawk Mini Park. In early stages of research, I became interested in the history of the site and the hybrid dynamics of the porch - both a public and a private space. In response to a ‘place making’ prompt, I was interested in creating an environment that would challenge notions of what it might mean to make oneself at home in public. This line of thinking led me to modify the traditional form so that every face of the wireframe house presented an entrance with a delineated porch and swing which the public was invited to occupy at any time of day.
14x12x12
hammered aluminum, plastidip, copper wire
24x24x72
printed image, wood
Lobby was a sculpture made in collaboration with Katherine Harvath for Szalon, curated by Monika Szewczyk and Katherine Harvath at the Logan Center for the Arts.
The title, Lobby, was a word chosen for its dual use in naming an architectural space, as well as a persuasive social body in the realm of politics. The interest in this title came along as the sculpture was developing and we considered the form along with practices of curation and viewership that were playing out in the salon style hanging of the exhibition:
Taking equal inspiration from the heterogeneous spaces of the studio and the salon, Szalon (pronounced sha-lon) makes room for an idiomatic place where the practice of showing and telling can flourish. Here, art is lived with and worked on, amidst (and sometimes as) conversation, storytelling, wordplay, rehearsal, research, exercises of judgment, and causes for debate. (Szalon, eflux)
At the outset, this sculpture was created to facilitate extended conversation and host audiences for events that were programmed over the course of the exhibition, including: Ottobong Nkanga, Derrick Adams, Postcommodity, Liam Gillick, David Reed and Jessica Stockholder.
Please visit the following archived announcement for more words from the curators and a list of participating artists: https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/30618/szalon/
materials: birch plywood, cushion, polyester fabric
Televisionism was curated by Monika Szewczyk, and included works by Faheem Majeed, Catherine Sullivan and Stan Douglas. The sculpture hosted a series of conversations programmed by Szewczyk over the course of the exhibition.
dimensions variable
materials: wood, scrim
Meeting Space was made in collaboration with Heather Mullins for the Southside Hub of Production in Chicago, IL
materials: new and reclaimed pine, casters
