Two Histories of the World, 2011-12

Two Histories of the World, Part 1, 2011
William H. Cooper Mfg. Warehouse, West Humboldt Park, Chicago, IL

Two Histories of the World, Part 2, 2012
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL

Opening on September 23rd, 2012 at the Hyde Park Art Center is the second part of a two-part experimental exhibition entitled Two Histories of the World curated by local independent curator Karsten Lund. This exhibition began one year ago at a former Chicago factory, an immense structure in partial disrepair that became home to a large resale business after the loss of a major manufacturing contract. In October of 2012, four artists conceived and produced new works for this site, using objects and materials culled from a vast stockpile of things inside the building itself. This September, these artists will produce the exhibition all over again, or a new iteration of it, one year later at the Hyde Park Art Center only after the full demolition of the warehouse.

Last year Black and Soto began with the painterly image of the traditional still life rising out of a sea of objects in a dark alcove of the warehouse. Each object in that still life was unified, a gestalt articulated through a single cone of projected light emanating from the  onlooker’s single point of perspective. Their second gesture scatters and fragments this singular cone of perspective like light is scattered through a prism, reflecting the tenuity of categorical boundaries and static viewpoints. With the creation of many individual still lives bearing a somewhat ‘familial’ resemblance to the original form, they have created a polychromatic topography through which this year’s audience can traverse, occupying multiple perspectives in relation to each still-life.

This project has been sponsored by High Concept Laboratories: http://highconceptlaboratories.org/

For more information please visit:
http://www.hydeparkart.org/exhibitions/emtwo-histories-of-the-worldem