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April 16 - June 4, 2021
Martines E-B (Chicago, IL), KevinRoyK , Sundé (Chicago, IL), cody coco wallace , Usama Alshaibi, Sid Branca (Chicago, IL), Carlos Nahuel Cerutti, Simon Cygielski, Rachel Damon, Jon-Carlos Evans, Aaron Greer, David Hawkins, Carlos Javier Ortiz (Chicago, IL), Kierah King, Cameron Lee, Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter, Camilx Rivero Pooley, Sim Sadler (Albuquerque, NM), Brandon Studer (Brooklyn, NY), Maria VanDyken Li (Chicago, IL), Gonzalo Varela, Valentina Vella
Curated by Megan Young
Part of Time-Based Arts
Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter, Anticipatory|Después: Vigil (2019), video still
PRIZES
People’s Choice Award
Columbia College Chicago Alumni Award
SPACES Director’s Award
CONTENT NOTICE
The following exhibition contains mature content and is intended for adult viewers.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
There is a moment on every journey when it becomes impossible to quantify how much farther we have to go. The challenge comes in recognizing the amorphousness of expectations and the malleability of experience. What was before simply is no longer. Time moves ahead, often without explanation.
In this collaboration with Columbia College Chicago (CCC), we recognize the entangled concepts of journey and destination. The collection of time-based works by CCC alumni showcase different paths and organizing principles. Each has its own methods and strikes a unique chord. Together they form constellations, but also growth charts. Sundé’s melodic gift, 06’ 07’ 05’ (2021), calls us close in lilting strides while a shadow plant rustles in view. Those warm trails press against more insistent works like KevinRoyK’s Return of the Rapture (2021) asking, “Whatcha gonna do ‘bout it?” Brandon Studer‘s Ennui Agg (2018) animation drips with potentially disastrous outcomes, while Carlos Nahuel Cerutti’s video short, Vivant (2020), sidesteps any definitive answers in favor of curious ambiguity.
There are missives, too. Taking form as love letters, summons, and broadcasts, these pieces offer experience as a guide. Atefeh Farajolahzadeh confronts the limitations of multilocational presence in No Answer (2017). Somber assertions color Valentina Vella’s Netherworld (2021), a sound poem asserting that we will muddle through somehow. Cameron Lee’s sonic collage, Cloud Burrow (2021), is a diary of uncertainty and Sim Sadler catalogues undirected attentions in Waveform #1 (2021). Releasing expectation seems both possible and necessary in Sid Branca’s My Father’s Name (2018) which explains, “No one has to be their father. That includes our fathers.”
Reaching out as transmissions from the not-too-distant past, or future, artists wrap their subjects in at least the momentary sheen of being known. We see figures considered, acknowledged, and heard. Usama Alshaibi and Talia Watrous’ standout film, The Desire (2020), captures the pandemic’s aching isolation while acknowledging the devastating and ongoing impacts of separation and displacement. Carlos Javier Ortiz’s experimental documentary, Shikaakwa (2021), shares a complex view of life in Chicago. “The film is a meditation on the physical spaces that hold us up and hold us back,” explains Javier Ortiz. Kierah King shares another form of elegy through dance and spoken word in Black Woman, Why? (2021). Two works from Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter’s Anticipatory|Después Series (2018, 2019) draw deep traces through our individual and communal reckoning with trauma, loss, and grief. Their layering of visual, kinesthetic, and auditory experiences linger long after the body has passed from view.
This compelling collection of original texts, images, sounds, dances, stories, and journeys provides an opportunity to get lost in and beyond the now. They affirm the need to be as we are, and to exist as we must.
’06 ’07 ’05
Original Sound Composition (2021)
By Sundé
Ennui Agg
Animation (2018)
By Brandon Studer
Timesliced Magnolia
Experimental Video from Custom Software (2014)
By Simon Cygielski
Zits and Wrinkles
Animation (2021)
By Maria VanDyken Li
Vivant
Experimental Film (2020)
By Carlos Nahuel Cerutti
Shikaakwa
Experimental Film (2021)
By Carlos Javier Ortiz
Whatever Niggah
Experimental Film (2018)
By MARTINEZ E-B
Black Woman, Why?
Spoken Word, Dance Film (2021)
By Kierah King
Netherworld
Sound Poem (2021)
By Valentina Vella
No Answer
Experimental Film (2017)
By Atefeh Farajolahzadeh
Waveform #1
Experimental Film (2021)
By Sim Sadler
Cloud Burrow
Original Audio Composition (2021)
By Cameron Lee
Replikant
Music Video (2020)
Directed by Jon-Carlos Evans, Visual Effects by David Hawkins
Leverage
Dance Film (2021)
Co-directed by Rachel Damon & Aaron Greer
Tres Historias Breves
Original Sound Composition (2020)
By Gonzalo Varela
My Father's Name
Video Poem (2018)
By Sid Branca
The Desire
Experimental Film (2020)
By Usama Alshaibi & Talia Watrous
Anticipatory|Después: Consequence
Experimental Video (2018)
By Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter
Anticipatory|Después: Vigil
Experimental Video (2019)
By Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter
Sábanas
Experimental Film (2020)
By Camilx Rivero Pooley
Scantily Clad
Narrative Film (2019)
By cody coco wallace
Martines E-B
MARTINEZ E-B is a native of inner-city Cleveland, OH and now living and working out of the Chicago, IL area. He is a multidisciplinary artist, who creates works that simulate the cultural/social/political fog of his upbringing. E-B has illustrated and authored books, has had his works adapted for theater, and... go to artist page
KevinRoyK
KevinRoyK is a music composer, performer, and educator currently based in central Illinois, and is soon to be releasing more original music, for the feasting purposes of ears, hearts, minds, and dancing shoes. go to artist page
Sundé
My name is Jessica Mubirigi my artist name is Sundé I am Dem Rep of Congo born and currently based in Chicago. I am a multifaceted artist but most people know me for my hands in the music world. go to artist page
cody coco wallace
cody coco wallace is a chicago native that graduated film school in 2013 and has been freelancing ever since. They are picky with the projects they work on; preferably proactive, righteous and for folks/stories that are often overlooked. In their spare time they are keen on driving motorcycles and recreationally... go to artist page
Usama Alshaibi
Usama Alshaibi was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1969 and spent his formative years living between the United States and the Middle East. He’s an active filmmaker and artist with many short films, documentaries and feature films to his credit. His films have screened at underground and international film festivals... go to artist page
Sid Branca
Sid Branca is a multimedia artist, writer, and educator working at the intersection of moving image media, performance, and creative writing. They work in a variety of forms, including video, performance, text and book projects, and music/sound art. They are also a projection designer and the Director of New Media... go to artist page
Carlos Nahuel Cerutti
Carlos Nahuel Cerutti is a writer, director and producer that is constantly fixing typographical errors, frequently pointing at things from behind a camera and occasionally improvising on the stage. After graduating in 2016 from the Universidad de Palermo (Argentina) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Audiovisual Communication, Carlos moved to Chicago... go to artist page
Simon Cygielski
Simon Cygielski designs buildings, makes photographs and dabbles in other types of art. Graduated with BA from Columbia College in 1995, and a MArch from UIC in 2011. go to artist page
Rachel Damon
Rachel Damon is a choreographer, designer, technician, and performer whose career bridges onstage and backstage. As the Director of Synapse Arts she has been honored to receive various residencies, grants, and awards from The Chicago Dancemakers Forum, MetLife, The Saints, the Illinois Arts Council, and more, as well as opportunities... go to artist page
Jon-Carlos Evans
Aaron Greer
Aaron Greer is an award-winning filmmaker and independent media artist who focuses on telling stories about identity formation. In addition to his feature film work, Greer has produced a number of short films and documentaries with performing artists. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. go to artist page
David Hawkins
As a Writer, Director, Special Effects Artist, and Musician... David Hawkins has spent his post-Columbia years traveling the world while pushing the boundaries of art and dissolving the border between Art and Technology. His first book, Halos, was published in Paris in 2003 and his first film America Two-Dollars and... go to artist page
Carlos Javier Ortiz
Carlos Javier Ortiz is a Chicago-based director, cinematographer, and documentary photographer who focuses on urban life, gun violence, racism, poverty, and marginalized communities. In 2016, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for film/video. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the... go to artist page
Kierah King
“As a May 2020 Graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Kierah King received her BFA in Dance with a Minor in black World Studies. A native of Hartford, Connecticut Kierah was homeschooled in her family’s café where she learned the power of service, education and creativity as central to life.Following her... go to artist page
Cameron Lee
Cameron Lee is a composer, sound designer, and motion graphic artist in Chicago, Illinois. Working between analog and digital processes, he focuses on revealing organic processes by synthetic means. go to artist page
Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter
Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter is a Chicana artist, curator, and educator guided by socially-engaged practices. Her background includes experience working in community organizations, gallery, museum, and higher education settings, and as a consultant with public health researchers. In developing as an artist and creative professional Brianna credits her late mother,... go to artist page
Camilx Rivero Pooley
Camilx Rivero Pooley is a Peruvian born & Venezuelan raised dance artist that has worked as a performer for Chicago-based artists such as Erin Kilmurray (#SEARCHPARTYdances & Fly Honey Show X, Ensemble), LOUD BODIES (Excerpts on Sexuality), Synapse Arts (soften every edge) & within her own multidisciplinary team ZINFORMA. She... go to artist page
Sim Sadler
Sim Sadler is an experimental filmmaker and video artist whose practice includes time-based collage, re-contextualized found footage, accidentally acquired sound, and remixed improvised scenarios.His work has screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Cannes Film Festival, and numerous other venues around the world.A 1978 graduate of... go to artist page
Brandon Studer
Brandon Studer graduated from Columbia College in 2014. He works as an artist and designer and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and baby boy. go to artist page
Maria VanDyken Li
Maria VanDyken Li is a Midwestern artist working in illustration, digital media, and critical making. Influenced by playful cinematic storytelling, Maria observes and reflects on the complexities of her life’s smallest moments, and how she finds beauty and meaning in the day-to-day. go to artist page
Gonzalo Varela
I am a composer, sound designer and audio programmer born in 1990 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Characterized by a strong interest in learning very different kinds of music, which allows me more resources to experiment with according to my sensibility and the expressive needs of each moment, my passion for artistic... go to artist page
Valentina Vella
Valentina Vella is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and poet born in Rome, Italy. She holds an MA in English literature from Roma Tre University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Media from Columbia College Chicago. She was the recipient of a CAA Fellowship in 2014. She has performed at... go to artist page
Visiting SPACES
SPACES is open to the public on Weds-Sat 12-5 PM
SPACES has stops from busses 26 and 71 right out front.
22, 25, 45, and 51 all also stop nearby at West 25 and Detroit.
On view
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