Johalla Projects Presents ISLANDS IN THE STREAM
Islands in the Stream
Works by Benjamin Funke & Gabrielle Gopinath
with a performance by Bitchin Bajas
June 1st, 2012 — June 29th, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 7-10PM
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM features DVD projections and photographic stills by multimedia artists Benjamin Funke and Gabrielle Gopinath.
At the exhibition opening, Cooper Crain and Dan Quinlivan of Bitchin Bajas will perform live in a multimedia performance with real time video editing by the artists.
The videos in the show, titled Water Wrackets and Intervals, began as reinterpretations of Greenaway shorts from the late ‘60s. In both works the auteurs bring precision timing and an acid-etched color palette to the stylishly deadpan depiction of ebbs and flows.
Crowds of art gawkers captured at the Venice Biennale in Intervals, like the Indiana floodwaters that saturate the screen in Water Wrackets, seek the lowest point in the landscape. Crowds and liquids propagate across the screen in trickles and flows to the spacey drones of Crain’s soundtrack.
The soundtrack for Water Wrackets, which came out in 2011 as an LP / DVD set on Kallistei Editions, features episodic arrangements of acid-drenched garage psychedelia drawing inspiration from Ravi Shankar, Sun Ra and 1970s Krautrock.
Crain and Quinlivan will be performing the Water Wrackets soundtrack at the opening, in addition to debuting material from their brand new release on Kallistei Editions, Vibraquatic.
The artists express their thanks to the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, the Center for Creative Computing, the University of Notre Dame Graduate School of Arts and Letters and Richard Gray for their support of these projects.
Benjamin Funke: I investigate the spectacle of contemporary culture, focusing specifically on forms of masculine performance and collective experience using sculpture, audio/video and photography to inject politicized commentary into my work. First harvesting images from the digital reservoirs that surround us, I then alter these images using both digital and manual methods. By de-familiarizing viewers’ expectations, they can be moved to reevaluate the content and the context of what they see. My earlier works about our collective fascination with professional sports (steroid usage in Major League Baseball®, fatalities in Nascar®) have primed this current interest in making art about popular music and fan cultures.
My work often hinges on specific, historically documented moments in which there is an identifiable change of state. These pivotal moments become the starting points for my investigations of singular and collective experience. These investigations often proceed by contorting and/or expanding the original moments through video and time-lapse photography. Since the work deals with contemporary forms of idol worship, I intend viewers to experience the intense emotional relations that fans develop with their icons. It induces viewers to inhabit what might be called fanspace: a highly charged ambivalent state that oscillates between sympathy and criticism, love and disgust. The work is driven by my sincere love for and identification with the subcultures it represents. Simultaneously, elements of punk aesthetic and attitude seed the work with dystopic implications – suggesting our civilization is in deep decline.
Gabrielle Gopinath studies modern and contemporary art in the postwar period. Her research interests include contemporary art, video and new media. Her book manuscript in progress addresses subject/object relations in early video art. She is currently working on an essay about 1960s performance artists’ engagement with laboratory techniques and operant conditioning. She has recently completed two articles titled “Not I: Oral Fixations in 1970s Video” and “Reversing Time’s Arrow in Nam June Paik’s Guadalcanal Requiem.” She will be presenting the latter at the Universities Art Association of Canada’s annual conference in Ottawa this fall.
Great Interview with James Jankowiak
Chicago artist James Jankowiak (Casper) interview on Vocalo 89.5fm w/ JDLP by Jdlp (Jesse De La Pena ) on Mixcloud
Hey everyone, check out this great interview with James Jankowiak that aired last week on Vocalo 89.5! James talks about his artist practice and his upcoming show at Johalla!
For more information about the show (OPENING THIS FRIDAY @ 7PM!), go to johallaprojects.com or look below!
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Johalla Projects Presents James Jankowiak’s “The Profane Illumination”
“Caffeinated Consciousness” 11″ x 14″ Acrylic on masonite 2012
Profane Illumination
A Solo Show By James Jankowiak
April 6 – April 28
Opening Reception: Friday, April 6, 7-10PM
Johalla Projects
1821 West Hubbard Street, Suite 110
Chicago, IL 60622
Gallery Hours By Appointment Only
A brief history of collaboration has reached its climax in The Profane Illumination, Johalla Projects Presents…James Jankowiak. This will be James’ first solo show with the collective, but it is definitely not the perfect pair’s first time at the prom, so to speak. Over the last couple of years, Johalla Projects and James have fostered quite the artistic relationship through creative discussions, group shows at NEXT Art Fair, and media shout-outs (James’ work was most recently featured on the cover of The Reader in collaboration with Johalla Projects).
Having recognized James’ strength and fortitude as an artistic force in the vibrant Chicago arts community as far back as his graffiti days in the late 1980s, Johalla Projects acknowledged this seemingly ready-made relationship and has provided Mr. Jankowiak with the ideal platform on which to exhibit a portion of his amazing body of work and installation, including paintings that thoroughly explore the scintillating relationship between the artist’s hand, retinal reaction and the intricacy of the line with which it is connected.
While the atmosphere will be one of white walls and bright lights, Johalla Projects has never been strident on keeping their artists contained. With such community projects like commissioned murals, our display of art through our CTA innovative projects, the upcoming Pop-Up Loop adoption, and a plethora of neighborhood specific directives, the collective has always maintained its integrity and dedication to the urban artist. What better marriage than that of Johalla Projects and James Jankowiak?
For additional info about the artists or Johalla Projects, please contact Director Anna Cerniglia at anna.cerniglia@gmail.com
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JOHALLA PROJECTS and RATIONAL PARK present PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
(from L to R: Zak Sally, page from Sammy the Mouse; John Porcellino, panel from King-Cat; Dale Flattum)
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
One Night Only
Saturday, March 24, 7pm to 11pm
Rational Park, 2557 W. North Avenue
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, a collaboration between Johalla Projects and Rational Park, is a one-night group show celebrating the sustainability of DIY practices, featuring the work of Zak Sally, John Porcellino and Dale Flattum. The show, presented salon-style, will give viewers a chance to see the scope of the original works of art. Hand-assembled and/or printed zines, comic books, gig posters and screen-printed sculptures will be available for viewers to purchase. They are physical objects, hand-made and hand-distributed, reminders of the artistic means accessible to individuals with a desire to do it themselves.
The show will be the release event for Sally’s new comic book, SAMMY THE MOUSE, Porcellino’s latest issue of King-Cat #72, and Flattum’s TOOTH: The Graphic Art of Dale Flattum.
For more information, please contact Grace Tran at grace.pt.tran@gmail.com or 630/234-3992.
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Jessica Taylor Caponigro at Wow-House (via Johalla Project Artists Blog)
Check out the newest post on the Johalla Projects Artist Blog to learn all about Jessica Taylor Caponigro’s work processess and inspiration as well as her recent spot in Wow-House, the current group show at the Johalla Projects!
Circus, Circus II, 2012
Check out this work in the group show Wow-House at the Johalla Projects by scheduling an appointment! The show is up until March 25th at 1821 West Hubbard Street
Suite 110 – Chicago, IL 60622
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Images from “Wow-house”
Thom Purdy Suzumoto "Cow City"
Head on over to our Tumblr to see some awesome images and works from the artists participating in Wow-house.
Also, for more information about our current exhibition Wow-house, click here!
Wow-house runs from March 2nd, 2012 — March 25th, 2012.
