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7th annual "summer summit"
Opening reception on Saturday, 11th of September
2003 from 6:00 - 10:00pm
Artists Bios
Many times artists hope to situate some of the responsibility
of history-making in their individual artistic process -- showing the complexity
of personal history and social experience and its connection to current political,
and global change. This particular art exhibit is doing exactly that, fourteen
artists living and working in ten different countries reflect on the set conditions
of the recent political and social crisis.
"A couple of great guys after a swell meal in an excellent
restaurant carved up Bosnia on a napkin. Violence broke out within the
year. Historical fact. Here assembled are the remnants of the table setting."
"TEA SPILL PARTITION PAPERS" from the Bosnian Paintings
1993 Ð 1995, Stephen Mueller |
Some of the Artistic Statements
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Burtonwood-Holmes
Each of these paintings show different pieces of mechanized armor, representing
recent pinnacles in industrial design for the respective periods. Each
evolution in manufacture marks these machines a successively more efficient
tools for the acquisition of territory and security of resource. Our current
series of paintings are nothing more than reminders that art, as with
other economic activity, is underwritten, sustained and profited by arms
and aggression. That the paint is allowed to abrade the final image promotes
vandalism of the subject, and in part returns the violence. |
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David Gista's
new paintings remind us, with ironic humor and insight, that the company
we keep defines who we are. Gista continues to explore the themes that constitute
his earlier work: the nature of identity and how it is forged, he mixes
genres and draws on his extensive image base from the history of art and
from the contemporary world, borrows and distills images from the popular
press-advertising, photojournalism, fashion magazines and transforms them
to construct a world that is at once familiar and new. The images percolate
in Gista’s imagination and take an entirely different form in the
process of painting. While his previous works focus was on solitary figures
or “duos”, many of the most recent paintings emphasis groups
of men and women involved in a common activity, the result is a series of
paintings that propose unexpected, often whimsical juxtaposition even when
the ostensible subject of the work is utterly serious. |
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Margy Stover
"Oftentimes, we live in a processed world – you know, people focus
on the process and not results." Bush, speaking on the Middle East peace
process. Source: Public Papers of the presidents, “Interview with
Print Journalists,” June 2, 2003.
Any plan, instruction or blueprint is always, in part, about a hopeful
solution and what is expected to be built. Expectations should, but often
do not, embrace their fallibility. While a proposal may be contrived with
the potential of resistance in mind, a plan’s intent cannot, nevertheless,
fully account for the ceaseless adaptation that occurs after the resulting
structure is inhabited. I am interested in the efficacy of instruction
and my use of familiar materials, layered patterns and fabricated schemas
is to suggest a delineation of multiple, co-existing interpretive processes
as well as potentials
My utilization of Bush’s colloquial phrase ‘ride herd’
(press conference, June 2003) is a means to contextualize this installation
and further obfuscate the constructs and ideals of ‘recreation’
and ‘occupation’ and what constitutes urban planning on an
immediate, domestic level. |
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Hague Williams
"Brand New Loyalty" is a series of screen-printed flags, each
with a symbol that has been derived from a Multinational corporation's
logo, and then has been transformed into my own. Transformation and the
catalysts that precipitate change over time are primary sources of motivation
for my work. The mechanisms of visual persuasion, such as flags, logos,
and emblems; referencing anthems, ritual, and other social-bonding experiences
as seen through individual histories, become the organizing principles
for my work. As a printmaker and artist using digital technologies, I
am predictably interested in such methods of change: Process is an integral
part of my work. I am in search of the next translation, the next transformation
as it is seen through the eyes of history, by the ones that make and experience
or suffer that history.
Contemporary symbols of power continue to blur the distinction between
empires, governments, and multinational corporations. I use the same apparatus
that the political and business worlds employ in order to reveal certain
contradictory aspects of the transformation process often overlooked and
hidden in a world that is altering itself at an unprecedented rate. By
doing so, I hope to situate some of the responsibility of history-making
in the individual artistic process -- showing the complexity of personal
history/social experience and its connection to current political, and
global change. |
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Stephen Mueller
The Bosnian Paintings 1993 – 1996, water-based media and acrylic
on paper
THE SPILL PARTITION PAPERS: a couple of great guys after a swell meal
in an excellent restaurant carved up Bosnia on a napkin. Violence broke
out within the year. Historical fact. Here assembled are the remnants
of the table setting.
TANGRAM PARTITION PLAN: the division of Bosnia by using the ancient Chinese
game of silhouettes would have been no less arbitrary.
THE MAP OF BOSNIA: roughly triangular with a slight counter-clockwise
twist – is the shape with shifting contours repeated in these paintings;
the outline changing as borders move(d).
FORTNIGHT OF SHELLING: same iconography with flags of complicity.
RAND McNALLY TAKES A STAB@BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA: map(s) and the living
fossil Coelacanth, discovered 1938: both beast (thought to be extinct)
and (as fish) symbol of life; in this case, stillborn with yolk sac |
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Kevin Evensen and Nina Todorovic
“ ...Your Aunt Nikolija asked that I bring back an appropriate
selection of photos so that my friends here in the states could see the
"best of Belgrade”. In a relatively short amount of time, you
and I managed to find enough shots which we both knew she would find totally
unacceptable. But in doing so, we also found a deeper, more real picture
of Belgrade.
One that quickly broke free of any cultural and geopolitical restrictions
or impositions. I had no other choice but to bring back a positive impression
of a city which invariably and at times against all conceivable odds,
bore a culture which constantly strives to move beyond the physical, economic,
and political limitations which have been imposed upon it by various governments
and administrations over the years. Consequently, we did not find images
that represent anyone particular cultural identification, but rather our
perceptions were brought into a group of thoughts and images which are
intricately tied to the city itself, looking not at what has been left
behind, but ahead: to what has yet to be found...” |
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| Updated September 8, 2003 |
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summer summit
Opening July 9
Reception from 5 to 10 p.m.
410 South Michigan Avenue
Suite 502
Participating artists:
Amir Berbic
Sandra Binion
Jodi Boatman
Jens Brasch
Trevis Childers
Morgan Craig
Michael Dinges
Carmen Gonzales
Branko Lenart
Conor McGrady
Brenda Moore
Merry-Beth Noble
Robert Reinard
Gina Rymarcsuk
Olli Watt
Hague Williams
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