Farewell, Chicago!
This is the last post that will be posted on the blog.
The July art actions that took place in Chicago were an unparalleled success and will surely be remembered by art historians for years to come.
For you, who are surely from the future, and wish to browse this website, be mindful that there are three types of posts here. “Original,” that is to say posts originating from this blog. “Documentation,” which shows what other people have been doing with the project. And “Borrowed,” posts that are simply appropriation from other blogs on Tumblr.
Reprinted below is the text of the original press release, which was sent to several publications at the start of the project.
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for immediate release
EMERGING ANGELENO ARTISTS AND THINKERS PRESENT NEW WORK IN THE NATION’S HEARTLAND
Actions and Interventions to be Executed throughout July across the Chicagoland Area
Barnstorming the Midwest, six Los Angeles born, educated, or based artists and thinkers— Mary Jane Boltz, Nicholas Gitomer, Zachary Kaplan, Avital Lazer-Beam, Max Podemski and Melissa Sachs—will present original public artworks in and about Chicago during the month of July. “This is an amazing opportunity for radical non-object-based practices from this nation’s left coast to reverberate throughout central America” said Zachary Kaplan, organizer of the month-long series. Participating artists were invited to adopt any medium, discipline, or strategy to represent and reflect upon Chicago’s unique culture and identity. These interventions take dynamic and unconventional forms—-performances, screenings, didactics—a variety that will leave you wondering, “what is art anyway?” The goal of this initiative is to involve new audiences in Los Angeles’s commitment to bringing vibrant, imaginative contemporary art to all corners of America.
Its ethos emerging from the radical constitution of its social activist artists during the 1960s and 70s (of the Alan Kaprow, Suzanne Lacy, Barabara T. Smith, and early Paul McCarthy axis,) Los Angeles exists as a primary hotbed for a unique brand of artist-driven, collectivist, educationalist, social-dialoguing-cum-practice. Now exporting this content to the middle, the participating artists will mine their sincere interest, ongoing research, and whatever elsedrives their fancy to substantively evaluate, define, and dictate an entire adopted environment— Chicago!
Projects
back to the future by Max Podemski
Stemming from his research in vernacular architecture throughout the United States, urban planner Max Podemski will design and produce a 500-run series of postcards depicting the history of Cabrini Green from its early days as Little Hell to the current spate of row houses being constructed on Division Avenue. The cards will be distributed in restaurants, bars, and other commercial properties throughout the area surrounding the razed development.
Chicago is a Bleak City Full of Anti-Semites by Zachary Kaplan
With an interest in intellectualism and white-ethnic rivalry, for this project, Zachary Kaplan will annotate each issue of the Chicago Tribune for the month of July 2009 looking for traces of antisemitism. At the project’s conclusion a summary report will be written, published, and publicly distributed.
If you seek it, look about you by Mary Jane Boltz
Throwing herself into foreign surroundings, Mary Jane Boltz will film Warhol-esque screen tests with friends and strangers. Through this process she will concurrently develop staged and impromptu fiction and documentary scenes of the individual and the city. The project will commence on July 12 and continue through July 19.
It’s not [Blank]… It’s an Artwork You Can Eat/Drink by Zachary Kaplan and Avital Lazer-Beam
Responding to the political realities of Chicago and the overly broad and often abused artistic vocabulary of activist artwork, Zachary Kaplan and Avital Lazer-Beam will serve free food to the public every weekend of the month at different locations throughout the city. Watch the blog, toddlintown.tumblr.com, for the roving times and locations.
super flat times by Melissa Sachs
Continuing her work with found imagery and video, Melissa Sachs will present two film selections, one by Sadie Benning and another by an ex-gay support organization. Through juxtaposition the work focuses on superficial aesthetic relationships rather than political argument. The screening will take place the final week of July; please check toddlintown.tumblr.com for complete information.
Toddlin’ Town Blog by Nicholas Gitomer
Digitally connecting to our nation’s breadbasket while safely at home in Burbank, California, critic and essayist Nicholas Gitomer will blog daily about Chicago eccentricities and curiosities. Original blogging will commence on July 1 at toddlintown.tumblr.com
If You Seek It, Look About You, Pt. 1 by Mary Jane Boltz
Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)
Chicago (That Toddling Town)
As many of us already know, art is the highest form of art. There are few works of art as high, however, as George Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This piece was gifted to the Art Institute of Chicago during the first half of the twentieth century. The painting was in the possession of collector/artist Frederic Bartlett and was given to the institute in memory of his second wife, Helen Birch Bartlett. Clearly a pinnacle of the artistic form, and also the inspiration for Stephen Sondheim’s powerful musical Sunday in the Park with George.
today josh and i visited the excellent art institute of chicago, where we happened to stumble upon “a sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte” by georges-pierre seurat. of course, we don’t know this painting because we are art connoisseurs, but from the montage in “ferris bueller’s day off” (which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest movies ever made). we took a series of photos that mimicked the scene in the movie - cameron frye stands in front of this painting and focuses on a little girl in the scene. the camera cuts back and forth from his blue eyes to the little girl, with increasingly closer shots, until the girl is nothing but a series of painted dots, and his eyes are totally spaced-out and sad. it’s an extremely short but very memorable part of the movie.
That’s strange, I don’t ever remember seeing the back of someone’s head in the pointillism painting by Georges Seurat. Must be a commissioned piece.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte ….. and me!
Lydia in a Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte
They support Chicago, and Chicago supports them.
