Unfurling: Five Explorations in Art, Activism, and Archiving
A Never The Same Exhibition http://never-the-same.org
Exhibition Dates: September 24-October 20, 2013
Location: Gray Center Lab – The University of Chicago 929 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637
Featuring Artists/Groups: Liliana Angulo Cortés with Sydney Stoudmire, Faheem Majeed, Jayne Hileman, Dan S. Wang, and Extinct Entities presenting Brandon Alvendia, Alexandria Eregbu, Tomeka Reid, and Baraka de Soleil.
Events:
- Opening Reception: September 27, 2013 6-8pm
- October 12th, Extinct Entities presents performances by Alexandria Eregbu, Tomeka Reid, and Baraka de Soleil.
- Closing Reception: October 19th, 5-8pm – Mess Hall unfurls their archives and Public is invited to contribute material artifacts from Chicago socially and politically engaged art history to NTS ephemera archives.
- October 20th Liliana Angulo Cortes with the Illinois Association of Hair Braiders and the United African Organization host a hair-braiding summit. RSVP on Facebook.
Surrounding this exhibition were a series of public archive unfurlings, a class, a symposium, among other programs produced during Never The Same’s 2013 fellowship at the Gray Center.
Artist Commissions/Exhibition: Never The Same (Daniel Tucker and Rebecca Zorach) commissioned five artists and scholars to produce work that activates archival materials related to Chicago’s rich history of politically- and socially-engaged art.
Description of commissioned art works for the Unfurling exhibit:
For the exhibition Dan S. Wang will produce a suite of new letterpress posters announcing imaginary future events that speak to the current and past worlds of Chicago critical art. Liliana Angulo will develop a Chicago chapter of her ongoing “¡Quieto Pelo! (Mappy hair!)” collaborative project on hair practices, traditions and politics in the African Diaspora. The Chicago chapter has the participation of local natural hairstylist and artist Sydney Stoudmire and there will be a hair-braiding event held in the gallery on October 20th. Jayne Hileman is producing a new three-dimensional map of the southside of Chicago as part of her ongoing engagement with experimental cartography. Faheem Majeed will be developing an autobiographical unfurling of archival materials from the South Side Community Arts Center that utilize his ongoing “Perennial Garden” shelving units inspired by the wood paneling in the Margaret Burroughs Gallery at SSCAC. Extinct Entities, a curatorial research group, will be commissioning several projects dealing with the legacy of the Affro-Arts Theater based on the Never The Same interview between Kelan Phil Cohran and Rebecca Zorach. These new commissions will include a poster designed by artist Brandon Alvendia, and a performance event on October 12th with Alexandria Eregbu, Tomeka Reid, and Baraka de Soleil.
Artist Biographies:
Artist Liliana Angulo graduated from the National University, Bogotá, Colombia. In 2010 she received a Fulbright Grant to pursue a Master in Fine Arts at UIC. In her work she explores intersections of African-descent culture with issues of gender, language, power relations and racial politics. In addition to several solo shows and national expositions in Colombia, she has participated in international exhibitions in Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean. She has developed and collaborated in different projects in which artists carry out collective projects with diverse communities. She has also contributed to design policies related to cultural and artistic practices in social and academic contexts. http://www.negricolas.blogspot.com/
Jayne Hileman works as a visual artist, carpenter, cultural curator, and as art & design teacher at Saint Xavier University, Chicago. She has been doing mapping projects about Chicago’s South Side since 2005. Curated projects include, Ocupados/ Occupations and Tent Cities, at Art in These Times, 2013. http://www.jaynehileman.com/
Faheem Majeed is an artist, curator, and community facilitator. Majeed blends his unique experience as a non-profit administrator, curator and artist to create works that focus on institutional critique and exhibitions that leverage collaboration to engage his immediate, and the broader community, in meaningful dialogue. From 2005-2011, Majeed served as Executive Director and Curator for the South Side Community Art Center(SSCAC). In 2012 Majeed served as artist in residence for the University of Chicago’s Arts in Public Life Initiative. Currently Majeed is associate director and faculty of University of Illinois at Chicago’s School Art & Art History. http://shacksandshanties.tumblr.com/faheemmajeed
Dan S. Wang is a writer, blogger, and printer living in Madison, Wisconsin. He lived and worked in Chicago from 1997 to 2007 and maintains close relationships with collaborators in the city. http://www.prop-press.net/
Extinct Entities (Erin Nixon, Anthony Romero and Anthony D. Stepter) is a project that explores the various histories of Chicago-based art spaces and collectives that no longer exist. Erin Nixon is an art writer and curator working in Chicago. She organizes experimental arts programming, self-publishes, and writes about alternative art histories and autonomous creative projects. Anthony Stepter is an organizer and educator based in Chicago. Anthony produces and hosts events designed to create new and interesting modes of engagement around the arts. Anthony Romero is an artist and writer based in Chicago. He has shown and published broadly most notably at Links Hall and the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, and through Ugly Duckling Presse. http://extinctentities.tumblr.com/
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