Recent Interarts Faculty Creative & Scholarly Endeavors

The Interarts Faculty have been very busy during the summer months – we’ve compiled a list of several dozen accomplishments, creative activities, scholarly achievements, and items that we thought we think you’ll be interested in knowing about… wait until you find out whose artwork was acquired by the Tate! and who just began a year-long residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art! not to mention who had their work acquired by Harvard University! or who conducted field work in Siberia? you might wonder who met a space cowboy while on residency in Death Valley? and who was in an exhibition at the Museum of New Art entitled New Media, Sex, and Culture in the 21st Century? You’ll just have to check out all the things we’ve been up to to find out…

Jeff Abell

  • Edited two major publications for the department – the Marilyn Sward catalog, and the Thesis Catalog.
  • Taught a community class for the Book & Paper Center in June, with alum Stephen DeSantis, that focused on handmade paper and cyanotype.
  • The dismantling of both the Paper Studio and Darkroom put a dent in his ability to make work utilizing those studios this summer, though he managed to complete a small body of work utilizing cyanotype on handmade paper.
  • He devoured 8 books, several of which will undoubtedly crop up in his teaching.
  • He also spent a lot of time listening to Mahler in July (the 150th anniversary of his death) and got very good ideas for a couple of essays on 19th century music that he hope to finish this fall (one deals with an impulse toward bi-textuality in 19th century music, and the other on interdisciplinary influences on Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde).

Sherry Antonini

  • June: Co-taught another richly successful run of the Connected Images class.
  • July: Worked with her Spring and Summer sessions Art As Practice class students to realize “Identity: Mapping Connections”, a 10-artist group exhibit at Work Studio gallery space, Chicago.
  • July-August: Spent time in her own studio in the Flat Iron Building, generating both text and images toward a combined exhibition of mural-size photographs and a related live sound/music performance to be presented simultaneously and scheduled for Spring, 2011.
  • July: Wrote and recorded “Painting With Renee”, one of a series of work sessions/interviews as part of a collaborative project for radio.
  • August: Continued work on plans-in-progress toward a visiting artist residency at Evergreen State University, Olympia, WA, featuring the upcoming photographic exhibit/performance described above.

Doro Boehme

  • Spent the summer working at SAIC, where she is the curator of the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection and, with the help of interns, processed performance documentation of the Randolph Street Gallery Archives.
  • Also continued her research for an upcoming artists’ book on drawing tests as a psychological assessment tool. (Previous titles can be purchased from Printed Matter or Art Metropole or viewed in the collection.)
  • Prepared an exciting list of readings for the “Reading the Artist’s Book” class, and travelled a bit through Germany and France, out of sheer homesickness.

Paul Catanese

  • Was an artist-in-residence for the month of June at the Goldwell Open Air Museum just outside of Death Valley. In temperatures soaring over 115 degrees and constant 30+ mile-an-hour winds, Paul performed a series of experiments with wireless cameras, balloons, lasers, and rockets, collected natural and unnatural objects, met a band of cowboys, visited a NASA base, met a cowboy that used to work for NASA, and spent the rest of his time time drawing and sketching.
  • Worked on the manuscript of his forthcoming book: CNC Printmaking, with his co-author Dr. Angela Geary. Dr. Geary visited the department for two weeks in July, where they worked together at the Center for Book and Paper as well as at Anchor Graphics. Specifically, they were benchmarking methods of creating aquatint-like tones with the laser cutter in plastic. In August, Paul continued research with trips to artists in Kansas City, Santa Barbara, and New York City – where he was researching with master printers from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Pace Editions and Two Palms Press.
  • Has been finishing a series of images for the (re)launch of the online journal: Leonardo Electronic Almanac. The journal invited Paul to create a series of thirty images, one for each day in the month of September, which will be unveiled one day at a time. Paul also has an essay in the journal, discussing his conception of the idea of Mish/Mash (the theme of the first issue) – which discusses experimentation and proto-experimentation necessary for interdisciplinary thinking.

Michelle Citron

  • Put the finishing touches on LEFTOVERS, a digital narrative based on over 2000 photographs shot by a group of lesbians in Chicago from 1939-1975. This is the forth, and final, narrative in the collection of (mostly) interactive pieces entitled QUEER FEAST, soon to be a website near you.
  • She also began research on and wrote a grant for her next project: LIVES: VISIBLE, a web-based visual essay that further explores the photographic archive used in LEFTOVERS
  • Her film DAUGHTER RITE was acquired by University Autonoma/Madrid, Connecticut College, Allegheny College, University of Toledo; and Harvard University.

Jenny Magnus

  • Began year long residency at Museum of Contemporary Art leading to commissioned new play, “Untitled Curious Project”, premiering in fall of 2011, written by here and performed by The Curious Theatre Branch
  • Composed and facilitated the first of 4 Curious Theatre Branch ensemble workshop components of the MCA residency
  • Began concurrent performance/conversation project Office Hours, at MCA, designed to directly interact with public and other artists and to encourage discourse
  • Finished CD project with The Crooked Mouth String Band, being released on UvuLittle Recordings in January 2011
  • Wrote short fiction “The Dark Ages” being published in Burning Word, online literary publication
  • Made 3 short films, “Friendship….or Continuity”; “Underneather”; and “Correspondences”, as part of Three Story Animal, produced at The Side Project and Center Portion by The Curious Theatre Branch

Clif Meador

  • Continued working on the “FIfty-Two” series, an on-going series of print-on-demand artist’s books produced once a week. I have completed 45 of them so far, and the title pages can be seen at http://www.cliftonmeador.com/fiftytwo.htm
  • In July he traveled to Siberia and the Buryat Republic. The Buryat Republic is traditionally the center of the Buddhist part of Russia, and he spent time in a Monastery in the Barguzin Valley, east of Lake Baikal, trying to understand what Mongol/Tibetan-Russian hybrid culture encompasses. Here is a picture from one of the temples, showing Russian/Tibetan inscriptions on the temple roof.
  • He worked on preparation for up coming shows this fall, one a group show in Washington D.C. at Reyes + Davis (http://www.reyesdavis.com/) September 10-October 16, and a two person show at the University of Arizona opening in November, with Julie Chen.

Jeanine Mellinger

  • Continued to work on The Garden of Remembering and Forgetting, site specific installation, print test on edible paper and planting experiments
  • Produced a demo interactive DVD and website for an artist
  • Created support materials and a budget for an NEA grant with John Manning and the Chicago Cultural Alliance with Children’s Memorial Hospital

Mel Potter

  • Had four exhibitions: New Media, Sex, and Culture in the 21st Century, Detroit MONA, curated by Jonathan Lillie and Steve Coy; Galerija Zvono, Solo Exhibition, Belgrade, Serbia November 2010; Museo de Mujeres Galeria, www.museodemujeres.com, Mexico; Nanomajority.com, 6-month feature on Art364B and its members
  • Published an essay, “Summer Studio”, Chicago Art Magazine, September edition
  • Had an interview on grantwriting and alternative spaces for book on professional development by Allworth Press
  • Conducted interviews with young women for Ammunition for the Virgin, a film supported by the Ministry of Culture, Serbia, and planned for an international symposium on the SE Balkan tradition of the virdzina, featuring Ammunition for the Virgin
  • Completed of Graphic Novella: Pulp, A Love Story: My Serbian Affair with Papermaking
  • Completed “Gender Assignment”, a print on demand collaboration with students of SUNY Brockport art department
  • Completed print-on-demand catalog for Among Tender Roots at Columbia College Center for Book & Paper
  • Worked on another residency with Yanomami community leader, Sheronawe Hakihiiwe to come to Chicago to create a second edition, and programming for our students in Caracas, May 2011

Mimi Schaer

  • Was the Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Featured Artist for August http://www.nationalwca.org/
  • Wrote articles that will be included in the following publications:
    • Notes of a Dubious Daughter, for Entering the Picture: The Emergence and Legacy of Feminist Art, Edited by Jill Fields, Routledge, Spring, 2011
    • Book Art Odysseys for The Bonefolder, Spring 2011
    • Transfer Tricks, for Central Booking Magazine, June 2010
  • Had work included in the following publication: Livre Animé du Papier au Numérique, by Gaëlle Pelachaud. Edition de l’Harmattan, Fall 2011
  • Created an Installation for Space and Sequence, Free Library of Philadelphia, Phila, PA, curated by Jae Rossman.
  • Finished AP of new edition Cinderella Ever After
  • Did research for Baby (Not) On Board, part of on-line exhibition (Pro) Create, where her work will be featured in November, for a 7-month feature on Art364B, at Nanomajority.com
  • Did research for Artist Talk at Central Booking Art Space, end of September, in conjunction with the DUMBO Arts Festival, in Brooklyn.
  • Had an Artist Book acquired by Tate Gallery, London

Nana Shineflug

  • Taught dance technique, improvisation and choreography in Ulanbaataar, Mongolia for 4 weeks
  • Chicago Moving Company performed at the I-Loft in Ulanbaataar
  • Taught a 2 week Intensive Dance course at the CMC studio in July
  • Performed at Bucktown Arts Fest in August
  • CMC Performing at The Other Dance Festival in September
  • CMC Performing at the 1306 Project at the CCC Dance Center in September