The Space & Place MFA performance/installations at Columbia College Chicago features the work of two students in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media MFA program. The Interdisciplinary Art Department’s unique curriculum urges students to cross-pollinate with a number of art disciplines in order to create new and unexpected art forms.
WHERE: Columbia College Chicago, 916 S. Wabash, 2nd Floor
Novus Antiquus, by Temple J. Cunningham, Room 204
This is my Home, by Michelle Graves, Room 207
WHEN: Installation Opening: Tues., Dec. 7, from 6-8 pm
Installation Hours: Wed., Dec. 8th – Thurs., Dec. 9th from 3–7 pm
Installation Closing: Friday, Dec. 10th, from 3-6 pm
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Novus Antiquus, by Temple J. Cunningham
Artist Temple J. Cunningham takes us to Grandma’s house in her installation Novus Antiquus (New Antiquation), where the topic of debate is a plastic covered couch. As a performer, Cunningham embodies two personas speaking their imagined minds about trend and tradition in the American household. Projections of these personas speak from opposing walls, with the subject of conversation—a plastic-covered couch—between them. Viewers watch from the couch itself, fixed between these personas like another piece of furniture, unable to contribute to the debate. Novus Antiquus questions what exactly is worthy of preservation: objects and ideals for the future, or people and opinions in the now?
This is My Home, by Michelle Graves
This is My Home is an installation dedicated to Pauline Mailloux, grandmother of the artist, who is in the final stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Graves creates a repository for her grandmother’s memories, using family photographs, artifacts, and Pauline’s well-worn phrases. A video projection reveals Pauline’s hands moving stenciled letter blocks, interacting with her phrases. Mounds of these stenciled blocks fill the space, the letters ready to be arranged when words are confused and sentences repeated. This is My Home tells of family sharing experience in the now, even if one may not hold onto the memory afterwards.
Special recognition goes to Pauline Mailloux, and carpenters Zack Sorenson and Jim O’Farrell, for their contributions in the creation of This is My Home.
