https://lithium.gallery lithium.gallery Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:49:38 +0000 https://lithium.gallery en https://lithium.gallery/LandingPage Fri, 07 Feb 2020 15:30:25 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/LandingPage TNL (aka. The Neu Lithium) is an online editorial and experimental curatorial platform for time-based arts. &nbsp; Now out: 1ON1 with Deborah Stratman. Read︎︎︎ https://lithium.gallery/Deborah-Stratman-1ON1 Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:49:38 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/Deborah-Stratman-1ON1 <img width="725" height="544" width_o="725" height_o="544" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0367a50f94c82c388b48dee3a804c82d49366e9a330a6636bc489e746742abf4/breakout_screening_deborahstratmanx1000_2022.jpg" data-mid="173436022" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/725/i/0367a50f94c82c388b48dee3a804c82d49366e9a330a6636bc489e746742abf4/breakout_screening_deborahstratmanx1000_2022.jpg" /> Still from Last Things (2023). Image courtesy of the artist. 1ON1 with Deborah StratmanNicky Ni | March 27, 2023 The 33rd Onion City Experimental Film Festival is just around the corner! Taking place between March 30 and April 9, the Festival this year will open with the Chicago premiere of filmmaker Deborah Stratman’s new film, Last Things (2023), a mesmerizing, speculative and eye-opening experimental documentary centering the most fundamental materials on earth, rocks. Deborah herself also needs little introduction. An award-winning filmmaker who welcomes national and international accolades, she has been prolifically producing research-based works that encompass film, video, installation, curation and writing, investigating complexities such as power, control, surveillance, belief, and how these altogether are intertwined in human societies. Deborah is currently living in Chicago and teaching at University of Illinois. And most importantly, she is one of the most intelligent, amiable, energetic and passionate people I’ve ever met. Leading up to the screening on Thursday, March 30, I am very honored to have the opportunity to pose a handful of questions to Deborah. A lot of very insightful interviews and conversations already exist out there. I recommend “Viva La Gap” with D. Taylor on Expressionless and an interview with Julie Perini on Incite. To fill in some gaps, so to speak, this interview focuses on elements of her films that are perhaps less discussed, and shines light upon her non-film and public works, including curatorial and site-specific installations. Every mention is hyperlinked to the project page so you know where you can get more info. I also highly recommend that you read Deborah’s writings, for example, “Keeler is where the postbox is” published on The Hoosac Institute, and “The Willamette meteorite,” on This Long Century. They are poetic, whimsical and refractive, taking you by the hand to travel across time and history. Everything at once. This interview has been edited for clarity. *** Nicky Ni: Sound is certainly an important element in your work, exemplified by the Chicago Works installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA),&nbsp;Feeling Tone (2020) and the film Hacked Circuit (2014). There are so many incredible interviews in which you talked about the usage of sound as space making in your moving image works. As a background question: when and how did you become fascinated by sound? What was the process of training yourself to be the sound editor of your films? Deborah Stratman: I’ve been sound-sympathetic as long as I can remember. I sang and played various instruments, though none very well; my father played music; my middle brother Steve can play virtually any instrument he picks up. It’s mind-boggling and mildly annoying. There was always music in the house, live music but also records, cassettes, radio. I was generally interested in acoustics and transmission, though I didn’t call it by those names. As a kid I would lay on the window ledge which was hollow and listen to the way the wooden cavity amplified my digestive track. In my 20s, I started learning about synthesizers and the history of field recording and musique concrète. My investment in vibration is a sort of base note to my life. When I first started editing, it was on celluloid and reel-to-reel ¼” tape making sound collages. I was transferring audio to magnetic materials and cutting that. So, I arrived at editing through the tactile. Later I learned digital video editing systems, most recently Premiere and DaVinci. Pro Tools is my go-to sound software for fine tuning and mixing. You learn sound editing by doing it, over and again. It helps to have a sense of rhythm, but that can be developed and finessed. Start to learn what sort of spaces you want to create. The essential bit is learning how to listen.&nbsp; Be a radical listener. Excerpt of Hacked Circuit (2014).&nbsp;Video courtesy of the artist. NN: When is sound the starting point for beginning a project? DS: On occasion, sound will be the germination of a film. For example, I’ll hear a clip from an interview and realize I can use that as catalyst for the rest of the film, as with the opening conversation of Optimism (2018). Or if the piece is a music video, as with Laika (2021) for Olivia Block. For a film liked Hacked Circuit, sound was conceptually central, focusing on foley artistry and sonic surveillance. But it’s more common that sonic ideas offer themselves up later, during the editing. With my non-film projects, sound is often a catalyst. As with the public speeches that populated PA System (2012), or Studs Terkel’s reconstructed radio booth for Feeling Tone, or the Ball &amp; Horn (2011 - ongoing) sculptures. NN: In&nbsp;Laika, Xenoi (2016) and also Last Things (2023), there are scenes where a reflective surface, such as a mirror or a prismatic object, appears at the center of the images, gently reflecting the blue sky or overexposed by white light. Similar motifs return to your public art Ball and Horns and Augural Pair (2011). Whenever I see this, I think of “Aleph” by Borges, for some reason. They seem to belong to a realm beyond the film itself, an outer-worldly thing, a portal of some sort that can teleport you to a different time and space. <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3ba5608bc85e3b6175bd98e227066cc05e8e6a3c76f60115e34518c06a0f1e52/UVP_DeborahStratman_Xenoi_WP_X7.jpeg" data-mid="173435307" border="0" data-scale="77" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3ba5608bc85e3b6175bd98e227066cc05e8e6a3c76f60115e34518c06a0f1e52/UVP_DeborahStratman_Xenoi_WP_X7.jpeg" />Still from Xenoi (2016). Image courtesy of the artist and Lightwork. DS: Portals are inviting. A mirror in the cinema is a way to suggest a universe parallel to the one already represented. It can suggest an Other. A visitor. A guest. I like that mirrors in the landscape can flip so easily between being a hole, an eye, a reflection, a star.&nbsp; They’re not mirrored, but this same idea shows up in Vever (for Barbara) (2019). The Vever drawings that appear as superimposed illustrations, and then later as punched out shadows of themselves, are doors not only for the Loa* to pass, but also for the speech and gestures of Maya Deren, Barbara Hammer, indigenous lady weaver-historians, the girls of the market and myself. There’s also a nod to the ultimate human portal at the end of the film, thanks to some enterprising self-portraiture by Hammer. * Haitian Vodoun gods NN: In another interview with Julie Perini, you mentioned that you started to make public work in the early 2000s as a reaction to the limitations that you felt from the experimental film world. That materializing participatory work expands your audience and provides different access. Your moving image works always have the power to conjure a spatial experience: dots are connected across time, scales, realities, through images and sound. In reverse, when you approach public art and installation, do you also think filmically? I’m thinking about your installation at MCA, which can be read as a film set; your curatorial work TEX HEX: Past Forward Pop-Up Floating Cinema (2011), where people watched moving image work and tuned in via the radio for sound; I was also looking at your early works such as Ahbeyezyana (2005) and FEAR (2004-14). In addition to creating a setup that is very surreal, the works are usually very time-based and mediated. DS: I don’t intentionally approach installations though the language of film. But it’s probably unavoidable as it’s a language I’ve spent so much of my adult life speaking. My brain has a film bias. To wit – a sinkhole is an edit in the landscape. A place where there is something, suddenly becomes a place where there is not. I’m drawn to this as a geographical, material fact and ominous, psychological tone. <img width="725" height="408" width_o="725" height_o="408" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71c6d6ca150efeb6b4c75fe7d4e5655e8f189c43efef2ba7e0319f707c705a3c/vxg6am8pzLastThingsStill1.jpg" data-mid="173435857" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/725/i/71c6d6ca150efeb6b4c75fe7d4e5655e8f189c43efef2ba7e0319f707c705a3c/vxg6am8pzLastThingsStill1.jpg" /> Still from Last Things (2023). Image courtesy of the artist NN: This year, the Onion City Experimental Film Festival will open with your Chicago premiere of Last Things. Your research collaborator, Suhkdev Sandu, author and Director of the Center for Experimental Humanities and Associate Professor of English and Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, will also attend in person and join the post-screening discussion. I don’t want to ruin the surprise. But perhaps you could give us a little sneak peek by speaking a little bit about how this collaboration started. How did you two meet and what was the research process like for both of you? DS: Sukhdev and I were matched as part of the UNDO Fellowship, a year-long experiment facilitated by Union Docs (NY) that pairs writers and filmmakers on a thematic topic of their choosing. We were one of four collaborator-pairs, each pursuing a different theme. Which in our case was Geologic Listening. Our conversations weren’t directly in service of the film. They’ve been more film-adjacent; rambling, unpredictable and wildly generative. NN: Last question is on coping and staying positive. After the end of the world is talked about (as in Last Things), what are your next steps? What is the project in progress? How do you stay positive and productive amidst so much madness going on around the globe? DS: Do collective things with other people. Resist, build, invent. Treat your physical body, this thing that carries us around, with gratitude and respect. Appreciate the company of non-human people.&nbsp; Last Things by Deborah Stratman, presented by Conversations at the Edge in partnership with Onion City Experimental Film Festival, premieres on Thursday, March 30, at 6pm at Gene Siskel Film Center. Due to popular demand, another encore screening is scheduled at 8:30pm. https://lithium.gallery/We-Don-t-See-Our-Shadows Fri, 24 Mar 2023 07:12:25 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/We-Don-t-See-Our-Shadows We Don’t See Our Shadows Programmed by Peixuan Ouyang March 27—April 2, 2023 We Don’t See Our Shadows presents a series of time-based works, featuring Gauri Awasthi, Aashna Singh, Lin Chen, Che Yeh, Leonardo Pirondi, Vesper Guo, Ruby Que, Eugene Tang, Zhuang Leng and Qingqian Liu. Parallel to the current exhibition at The Plan, Winter Survival, curated by Yue Xu, We Don’t See Our Shadows echoes the sentiments and reveries of the diasporic experience, showcasing a wide range of moving image experimentations by international artists and filmmakers in the process of obtaining and securing a place to be in the United States, a country that follows a groundhog’s prediction for the arrival of the spring. This program demonstrates what films and videos can take in and break from, with a variety of projects that are personal, self-reflexive, playful and imaginative. With lights and shadows that we create, we make our own announcement: “Faithful followers, there is no shadow of us and a beautiful spring it shall be.” Lotus Fishing at the JK Temple Gauri Awasthi, Aashna Singh, TRT 2:01 An older speaker revisits the memory of visiting a temple in her hometown with her grandfather—in this short film, she catches upon her earliest understanding of love. From South to North Lin Chen, TRT 9:01 About a memory and an impending trip from south to north. Rehearsal for Encountering Che Yeh, TRT 9:13 “Rehearsal For Encountering looks into the moment of intercultural contact between the Asian indentured laborers and the enslaved people from Africa, who were either coerced or tricked into laboring in plantations in the Caribbean during the mid-19th century. The film is structured with footage taken during a research trip when I revisited sites that were documented in historical archives in Cuba. The footage is accompanied by texts generated by pulling apart and weaving together various theoretical writings. They are narrated in two languages—Cantonese and Spanish. The narration is interrupted and punctuated by electronic sound, conga drum beats, recordings of Jazz shedding, and a jazz conversation between musicians/theorists Fred Ho and Salim Washington. While arranging the sounds and images for the film, I try to bring in wandering, destabilizing, and colliding. These forms of movement aim to cultivate bodily viewing experiences that resemble acts of teetering in between and to work around the static pastness within histories.” —Che Yeh In Search of Mount Analogue Leonardo Pirondi, TRT 3:36 In Search of Mount Analogue journeys through ocean and land, bringing life to the imagined, metaphorical, and mysterious island from the 1952 novel, Mount Analogue, by René Daumal. The film uses 16mm film to capture computer-generated images that create an immersive, but rather odd, landscape of Mount Analogue. YAN Vesper Guo, TRT 11:50 “YAN is a video essay inspired by my personal experience of quitting smoking. Within the duration of smoking a cigarette, the process of dealing with my addiction is paralleled to an attempt to reconcile with myself from my memory with a disconnected friendship - a relationship sustained via pixels.” —Vesper Guo Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting Ruby Que, TRT 1:29 In a haunted house, whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting. The search for an exit continues. a fly on the wall, a deer in the headlights Eugene Tang, TRT 9:44 “A fly on the wall, a deer in the headlights is an ongoing video choreography series where I photograph older nude models in their homes, who I find through online posts. In these posts, I ask for local nude models, inclusive of different body types, however almost only white men have replied. These posts are neither sexual nor implying a sexual exchange. A video camera runs in the background pointing towards me and the models to capture our interactions and conversations. I place myself in the center of these unexpected and spontaneous encounters, and I am interested in these negotiation of transactions. This series reveals the loneliness of life in a post-pandemic situation, the invisibility of queer identity, fetishization and exoticization towards the Asian gay body, and the sexuality of the stigmatized bodies within exhibitionism.” —Eugene Tang i-458 (Vanishing Point) Zhuang Leng, TRT 7:28 i-485 (Vanishing Point) is a document-zine, and a (desktop) performance performed over several zoom meetings during the pandemic. It investigates a friend’s green card marriage that took place in Las Vegas back in October 2019. Photographic images are arranged, juxtaposed and attached to the i-485 form, a form designated to be used by a person in the United States to apply for lawful permanent resident status. Spring Festival (work-in-progress) Qingqian Liu, TRT 21:19 “When COVID-19 hit, I had already lived in the US for 4 years. I couldn’t go back to China for the Spring Festival, so my mom started sending me videos of family gatherings. We began having more conversations over the phone, during which we talked about topics we had never talked about before. I wanted to understand my mother as a person, beyond just her role as my parent, and to know more about her youth during the social changes in China. As part of her generation, my mother had witnessed many significant events in China’s recent history, including Mao’s death, economic reforms, the influence of Western culture, and the 1989 Tiananmen protest. She married my father and gave birth to me in the early 90s, a time when many believe that China promised prosperity, openness, and individual freedom. “However, she believes that the past should stay in the past and that I should focus on the present instead. Despite our differences, we trust each other in the collaboration of making this work. This film reveals a complex relationship between two generations, through the use of vernacular footage that highlights the quotidian aspect of life.” —Qingqian Liu https://lithium.gallery/James-Connolly-1ON1 Sat, 20 Aug 2022 06:55:33 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/James-Connolly-1ON1 <img width="2100" height="1500" width_o="2100" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78f49842eda495529144efd76b0c7484cc3b4033ed6a9a9e5f10865ec99461f7/Control-Signals-1.jpg" data-mid="150869824" border="0" alt="I am caption" data-caption="I am caption" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78f49842eda495529144efd76b0c7484cc3b4033ed6a9a9e5f10865ec99461f7/Control-Signals-1.jpg" />Video still from Control Signals (2022). Image courtesy of the artist. 1ON1 with James ConnollyNicky Ni | August 20, 2022 Control Signals, a solo show by Chicago-based artist and educator James Connolly recently opened at The Latent Space, located in the Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago. Arriving at the gallery space, and even before entering, we can see through the gallery’s facade windows the protagonist of this exhibition, a commanding audio/video installation composed of 19 Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors of various models and sizes. These monitors are arranged into four rows on a display shelf, transmitting synchronized visuals that undulate and transform on the screens as though a specter lives inside them. The images themselves are hypnotizing, ranging from video test cards (used in analog TV to calibrate colors), snippets of broadcasted news such as Trump giving a speech or a headshot of Elon Musk, to trippy liquidy colors that are like lighting gels melting into each other, emitting alarming luminosity. Inside the space, this stroboscopic experience is further enhanced by a noise that corresponds to the vibrations of the images. Audiovisual signals seem to be constantly on the brink of losing control. From his earlier screenprints, glitch videos to more current real-time projects that involve hacking and altering digital and analog systems, James’s interests seem to always reside at undercovering and undermining power structures—both technological and political. Once a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, James has been teaching at its Department of Film, Video, New Media and Animation since 2013. Apart from teaching, he is also the Collection Manager at Roger Brown Study Collection and freelance database developer and archivist. At the occasion of his solo exhibition, Nicky Ni from TNL has had the pleasure to talk with James to uncover some of the concepts and technicality behind his latest work, Control Signals. This interview has been edited for clarity. Nicky Ni: Congratulations on opening this incredible show. Perhaps first and foremost, we should get some of the technical terms out of the way. For people, like myself, who have never opened up the backside of a CRT monitor, can you elaborate on what is at work behind this incredible audiovisual installation? What is a CRT Flux Phaser? And what is RGB.VGA.VOLT video synthesis system? James Connolly: Thank you! The large-scale installation in this show contains 19 prepared CRT monitors are being driven by DIY tools I’ve developed: RGB.VGA.VOLT, which I originally made in 2014, and the CRT Flux Phaser, which I just released in 2022. RGB.VGA.VOLT is a video synthesis tool. It creates bright visuals by bending audio into video through a hacked VGA (video graphics array—the pre-HDMI video cable standard for computers) using very specific frequencies that provoke interesting imagery. The CRT Flux Phaser is a new system I finished in 2022 that electromagnetically manipulates the video of a CRT by sending separate low-frequency audio waveforms into 4 hand-wound electromagnets surrounding the electron guns of a cathode ray tube. It’s kind of like a DIY version of Nam June Park’s Wobbulator that can be digitally programmed in endless ways. For the exhibition Control Signals, I built Max software that randomly cycles through over 40 different pre-programmed “events” that range from colorful visuals, electromagnetically manipulated video test cards or live views of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Events contain algorithmic and random elements, so unexpected and unique things can occur without exact repetition over time. CRT Flux Phaser. Video courtesy of the artist. NN: The way you install and arrange these CRT monitors has a lot of historical references: from Fluxus artist Nam June Paik—as you have already mentioned—to the Pictures Generation artist Gretchen Bender. Just to name a couple. For an era where CRT TV was a household item, serving as a mouthpiece of mass-produced images, the inclusion of CRT monitors in an artwork can be perceived as a critique to consumerism and the invasiveness of mass media. You mentioned that you thrifted a lot of your CRT monitors around the 2010s, when flatscreens predominantly replaced their predecessors. Nowadays, CRT monitors can be seen at museums to display older video works more-or-less in their original formats; other times, they are treated as nostalgic objects. What are CRT monitors to you, and why do you think it is relevant to study, hack, and repurpose them in contemporary times? JC: To me, cathode ray tubes are the antithesis of the contemporary electronic devices we use daily in 2022. My use of them is purposeful, and for both political and aesthetic reasons. As we merge more closely with the consumer technologies we carry in our bags, pockets, or on our wrists, their functionalities and surveillance systems can become further out of view. Our smartphones, tablets, watches and the apps and software they run on are mysterious black boxes that give us access to unprecedented information, but contain hidden functionalities that track, surveil, control, and monetize us in ways we can’t comprehend. Information and data are the new capital, and these devices dictate what we receive as inputs and communicate as outputs. They convert us into data commodities that can be sold for further commercial gain. As artists, these devices even dictate our creative outputs—controlling what tools, protocols, formats, and encodings we can generate within a market that is increasingly centralized across a few corporations. The cathode ray tube is a very dumb device. When you send it a dirty or unstable video signal, it won’t show the “NO SIGNAL” screen that today’s televisions and projectors have built in. They won’t track the imagery you’re displaying on them or use algorithms to identify and generate metadata on the content you’re showing. They don’t require a specific proprietary file format that a given company has a financial stake in. They take raw signals and display them through electrons—the same particles that partially make up our bodies, so there is something very unalienating about them compared to digital displays. They feel different. They are also open boxes. They can be prepared, hacked, cracked, modified, and repurposed for aesthetic or conceptual reasons, and there is no user agreement you are violating by jailbreaking them to behave in new ways. I like the freedom they offer aesthetically and what they signify politically in the era of data capitalism and the surveillance state. For me, it’s important to be influenced by but not just repeat what artists have done with CRTs in the past. I try to extend their potential by using new tools and systems. For instance, all of my CRT work hybridizes analog and digital tools. I still work more in the digital realm than I do analog—most of my studio time is spent coding software that can generate imagery that feels completely new and unexpected, and then converting those moments into audio/video compositions. Once I get to know a system, I add complexity to it so that I’m still engaged when using it to create live performances or edited videos. But CRTs do have downsides. They are a huge pain to move and install. They are also dangerous to work with and can kill you if you handle them improperly, even if they are unplugged (don’t open or modify a CRT unless you know how to safely discharge it). Something about this also makes them exciting for me. <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b13d4a2af433d544e05fb6780fd844629e94018fd63550f29d2ff42f9004c018/image_50407425.JPG" data-mid="150871689" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b13d4a2af433d544e05fb6780fd844629e94018fd63550f29d2ff42f9004c018/image_50407425.JPG" />Installation view of Control Signals at The Latent Space. Image courtesy of the artist. NN: To follow up—and more particularly—with your installation at The Latent Space: how did you arrive at the decision of presenting these monitors as such? Were other forms of installation considered? What were some of the concerns and challenges? JC: For this show I decided to just go big and essentially bring my whole studio into the gallery. I was interested in creating a monolith of monitors that viewers could lose themselves in. Every monitor looks and feels a little different in the way they react to the colors and electromagnetic manipulations I’m sending them, so they can be captivating to watch over time. I spent the past two years modifying all of these monitors, and it felt like a proper first public showing. My challenges included safely powering and wiring 4 separate audio signals through audio amplifiers to 76 different electromagnets in 19 different monitors—a truly absurd set up. 4 of the monitors had a tendency to turn off when they received low frequency audio signals around 7 Hz, so I disconnected their magnets, which created a nice clear display of the imagery being “wobbulated” in other monitors. NN: I’m intrigued by the Cracked Ray Tube performance that you co-performed with your collaborator Kyle Evans. Could you talk a little bit about how you and Kyle planned for the performance? And more broadly, how do collaborations and the model of resource-sharing work for you? JC: Now that I’ve built the CRT Flux Phaser, I plan on creating new performances and studio videos with it, which I will be showing and releasing soon. I’ll also be heading to Austin, Texas to organize a show with Kyle Evans in January 2023. Additionally, I also hope to program new Chicago events and exhibitions that showcase the amazing artists working in the realtime audio/video/new media/performance realm. My favorite part of the Control Signals exhibition has been the live performances. It’s amazing to show work alongside Angelina Almukhametova, Maryam Faridani, Nick Briz, and Sky Goodman—some of my favorite Chicago artists. This city is full of brilliant people who create work that crosses genres and mediums as these artists do, and I’d like to organize more events that showcase and support them. Cracked Ray Tube (Kyle Evans and James Connolly) performing at The Laten Space on Saturday, August 13, 2022. Video courtesy of the artists. NN: Last but not least, could you share a little more about what your next project will be, or anything that you are excited about in the upcoming months? JC: Now that I’ve built the CRT Flux Phaser, I plan on creating new performances and studio videos with it, which I will be showing and releasing soon. I’ll also be heading to Austin, Texas to organize a show with Kyle Evans in January 2023. Additionally, I also hope to program new Chicago events and exhibitions that showcase the amazing artists working in the realtime audio/video/new media/performance realm. My favorite part of the Control Signals exhibition has been the live performances. It’s amazing to show work alongside Angelina Almukhametova, Maryam Faridani, Nick Briz, and Sky Goodman—some of my favorite Chicago artists. This city is full of brilliant people who create work that crosses genres and mediums as these artists do, and I’d like to organize more events that showcase and support them. NN: Incredible! I am really looking forward to more programs to come. Control Signals by James Connolly at The Latent Space until September 10, 2022. A DIY audio/video synthesis workshop will take place on Sunday, August 21 at 2:00 pm. Control Signals Performances #2 will take place on the closing day, Saturday, September 10, 2022, at 8:30pm. https://lithium.gallery/02-DSPTCH-1 Wed, 17 Mar 2021 00:12:05 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/02-DSPTCH-1 <img width="1045" height="1045" width_o="1045" height_o="1045" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9923aba0cb6fac6f01c2db53f961d625387383d6d1b1501293a4827a0bac1327/2-DSPTCH-02.png" data-mid="102269386" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9923aba0cb6fac6f01c2db53f961d625387383d6d1b1501293a4827a0bac1327/2-DSPTCH-02.png" /> <img width="1043" height="1043" width_o="1043" height_o="1043" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dac1c8c6dd28bc707ec4a7909e617cd23f87f4ce03de591678611056c8d20d9a/2-Interview-01.png" data-mid="102269415" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dac1c8c6dd28bc707ec4a7909e617cd23f87f4ce03de591678611056c8d20d9a/2-Interview-01.png" /> DSPTCH #02 by Nicky NiChicago | March 14, 2021 After a year of mostly virtual art activities, now is a good time to examine some of the existing formats and strategies of presenting and curating experimental time-based art on the Internet. Just to be on the same page–I’m not talking about bigger subscription models such as Netflix and Criterion Channel, or user-based online video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo–I’m focusing on more niche examples that provide free access to videos and digital arts under the fine art category. Through these examples, maybe we can get a better understanding about whether the pandemic has helped us rethink what the Internet could bring to art and its audience. When it comes to free access vs. institutionalization of art, it is always worth highlighting the different levels of control over the dissipation of digital images. As Erika Balsom poignantly summerizes in her book After Uniqueness: A History of Film and Video in Circulation (2017), “images have never been as free and as controlled as they are today” (pg 220). It resembles a cat-mouse game: the more open and ubiquitous the Internet gets, the tighter control the copyright owners hold over their images. These different strategies by different organizations towards online screening throughout the lockdown, from generously offering free resources to stringently imposing a paywall, creates a volatile environment for the audience that hoped to see a more democratic Internet shaped by lockdowns and working-from-home. Nevertheless, different organizations have different missions: some were web-based from the get-go while others temporarily shifted their programming online due to COVID-19. So let’s walk through some of them. Vdrome might be one of precursors dedicated to showing moving images on a website. Founded in 2013, they provide free access to one work per artist, together with a text preface for a short period of time. In her book, Erika Balsom puts Vdrome on the lineage of video art programs that used to be broadcasted over television (pg 219). Although both share a limited window of availability, Vdrome is watch-on-demand (like Netflix) whereas a TV program is linear broadcasting that streams according to a schedule. But watch-on-demand can still fall under either the category of database or distribution. A database is a repertoire of resources that one can access at liberty, and a distribution entity screens works within a limited period of time. Most of the organizations that provide an online viewing platform follow Vdrome’s model, which is distribution, although they can keep a database or work towards actively building one. For example, Chicago-based Video Data Bank highlights one work or one series from its collection bimonthly on VBD TV, and this program has been going on for a few years now (note that the rest of the collection is only available upon request on site, not freely online). E-flux has a long running Video &amp; Film channel that has been growing its online archive over the years, while keeping only a selection of past programs fully online and free. Among art museums that have made their way to virtual programming during the pandemic, the New Museum in New York—very democratically—has an online depository for its “Screening Series Online” and recorded talks, which actually began before the pandemic. Walker Art Center has Virtual Cinema that continued their film and video programming during the pandemic, and its online screenings are timed and usually available for a couple of weeks. Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, on the other hand, has only had a handful of online screening events this year, many of which are ticketed and not available after the streaming concludes. Even art institutions that own a large quantity of time-based work, MoMA for instance, were not in any hurry to screen any of them online for a stay-at-home audience. Having cancelled all year of in-person film programming in 2020, MoMA started a virtual cinema streaming earlier this year, but just for its members. But none of the above fascinates me as much as yet another way to approach online programming, and that is--the Internet TV. It imitates a linear TV channel and “broadcasts” 24 hours a day. Apart from Wrong TV, organized by The Wrong biennial, and Souvenirs from Earth, an international cable station that also streams art videos online in real time--both of which are still ongoing and free--this format of TV for the Internet also prompts new curatorial possibilities. Coinciding their annual benefit, the Renaissance Society programmed a 24-hour “low-fi aesthetic” TV channel that ran from December 4 - 5, 2020, putting together a more viewer-friendly playlist that danced with the rhythm of the day. There were slow and dull videos that you could leave running in the background; there were also videos more suitable for the evening, with a little bit of music and beats. The program was designed to not be watched fully; it was meant to exist and welcome anyone interested to tune in and tune out. Less pressure, more leisure. And maybe that is the advantage of such a format, which puts digital videos back to where they are made (the computer with materials from the Internet) and truly weaves them together with our life occupied by Internet browsing. Nevertheless, online programming is still ephemeral and creates a mirage of “free content” that collapses on the reality where links and access can simply expire on an idiosyncratic date, which is hard for an average viewer to keep track of. Additionally—but understandably, artists and galleries also show reluctance in participating in such democratic viewing experience, some cited lack of remuneration, others dread of piracy. There is perhaps no great solution to this until video art gets to be so omnipresent that online streaming only constitutes one of the many ways of distribution. The silver-lining is the emergence of certain web-based video databases and streaming platforms since the 2010s that were conceived with the nature of digitality in mind. Rather than migrating conventional methods of viewing to the virtual space, commercial sites for digital art such as Daata and Niio are reaffirming a moving-image viewing experience particular to the Internet. Relying more on collaborations with living artists whose works are in constant shapeshifting—from gallery installations, film-festival screenings, to different scenarios of virtual environment, these sites have started to allow low-res previews (with or without a watermark), as inferior copies, to be watched in full on their websites. This is only the beginning, let’s hope that one day, when regulations around showing and collecting time-based art shall become more sophisticated, artists and collectors will no longer be so afraid of digital reproducibility, and we will get to see a freer Internet, accessible to all. https://lithium.gallery/02-1ON1 Sun, 07 Mar 2021 03:43:54 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/02-1ON1 <img width="1045" height="1045" width_o="1045" height_o="1045" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7663bd1e2783d633b7a4676786538b68b1e4b877e61fc27f591d33ad7ce86da3/2-Interview-02.png" data-mid="101107024" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7663bd1e2783d633b7a4676786538b68b1e4b877e61fc27f591d33ad7ce86da3/2-Interview-02.png" /> <img width="1045" height="1045" width_o="1045" height_o="1045" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1734de6184f2a101e040ec8a7787c142c1b8840a8b4831f19f6142c973a9f8b1/2-DSPTCH-01.png" data-mid="101107025" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1734de6184f2a101e040ec8a7787c142c1b8840a8b4831f19f6142c973a9f8b1/2-DSPTCH-01.png" /> 1ON1 with F.M.7 by Manisha AR Bangalore&nbsp;| 9 March, 2021 Discovering work by Mario and Fabián was a gradual process and an unforgettable experience for me. From meeting them in person, to understanding the context of making digital art in Cuba and finally seeing their work on Instagram. This is the journey we have chronicled in our interactive interview. By giving you, the reader, an option to make decisions like which questions you would like answered and which you don’t really care for, we pass on the responsibility to find value in their work to you. We also hope it impacts you more organically, as if you were meeting them for the first time and going on your own journey with their work.&nbsp; Artists Biography: F.M.7 is an Art Collective founded in 2015 by Fabián González and Mario Sergio Alvarez, both Cubans. Co-founders of A Week for an Artist (AWA), a virtual art platform on Instagram: @a_week_for_an_artist, to promote mainly Cuban artists. Their works have been exhibited in Institutions and public and private events in Cuba and abroad, such as the III Biennial of Asuncion in Paraguay; Biennial of Contemporary Art of Lyon in France; Biennial of Art of Havana, Cuba; Cuban Art Factory; Ludwig Foundation of Cuba; Collage Habana Gallery, Taller Gorría Gallery, among others. They received in 2017 the Residency “Art onLocation: Artist, Site, and Process” at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC); the Creation Grant “El Reino de este Mundo” awarded by the Hermanos Saíz Association of Cuba (AHS) and the Norwegian Fund for Cuban film production. <img width="400" height="400" width_o="400" height_o="400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97d9c96048631fc5014fb44e589f59b5bfde4ed95658437f14e0500022a9d319/Portal-Icon.png" data-mid="101912468" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/400/i/97d9c96048631fc5014fb44e589f59b5bfde4ed95658437f14e0500022a9d319/Portal-Icon.png" /> ENTER THE INTERVIEW PORTAL &nbsp; <img width="4000" height="3000" width_o="4000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53b0fe240c28f7c5e8b8b02fddd91d283e6b8069e548982e292259ef4f3fb228/teamImg.jpg" data-mid="101133911" border="0" data-scale="98" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53b0fe240c28f7c5e8b8b02fddd91d283e6b8069e548982e292259ef4f3fb228/teamImg.jpg" /> F.M.7 Collective Artists <img width="1127" height="634" width_o="1127" height_o="634" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ce0f29cad6175879ed9b2a77357255f3d90398ec9ac5b64160f1c27085f05c81/StillImage_LaJungla.png" data-mid="101403390" border="0" data-scale="98" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ce0f29cad6175879ed9b2a77357255f3d90398ec9ac5b64160f1c27085f05c81/StillImage_LaJungla.png" /> Still Image from La Jungla Descubrir el trabajo de Mario and Fabián fue un proceso muy progresivo y una experiencia inolvidable para mi. Desde encontrarse con ellos, hasta comprender el contexto de crear arte digital en un contexto Cubano y al final ver sus obras por Instagram. Este es el viaje que hemos grabado en la entrevista interactiva. Al regalarte, el lector, una opción para tomar decisiones como cual preguntas que querías respuestas y cuales no te importan, no da la responsabilidad de buscar valor en sus obras. Esperamos que te afecte por un proceso muy orgánico, así como, te encuentres a los artistas por primera vez y tomes un viaje con sus obras. &nbsp; Biografias de artistas: F.M.7 es un Colectivo Artístico fundado en 2015 por Fabián González Escobar y Mario Sergio Alvarez, ambos cubanos. Co-fundadores de A Week for an Artist (AWA), una plataforma virtual de arte en Instagram: @a_week_for_an_artist, para promocionar principalmente a artistas cubanos. Sus obras han sido expuestas en Instituciones y eventos públicos y privados en Cuba y en el extranjero, como la III Bienal de Asunción en Paraguay; Bienal de Arte Contemporáneo de Lyon en Francia; Bienal de Arte de la Habana, Cuba; Fábrica de Arte Cubano; Fundación Ludwig de Cuba; Galería Collage Habana, Galería Taller Gorría, entre otros. Recibieron en 2017 la Residencia “Art onLocation: Artist, Site, and Process” en School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC); la Beca de Creación “El de este Mundo” que otorga la Asociación Hermanos Saíz de Cuba (AHS) y el Fondo Noruego para la producción de cine cubano. <img width="400" height="400" width_o="400" height_o="400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97d9c96048631fc5014fb44e589f59b5bfde4ed95658437f14e0500022a9d319/Portal-Icon.png" data-mid="101912468" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/400/i/97d9c96048631fc5014fb44e589f59b5bfde4ed95658437f14e0500022a9d319/Portal-Icon.png" /> ENTRAR AL PORTAL DE ENTREVISTA https://lithium.gallery/01-DSPTCH Tue, 12 May 2020 20:42:28 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/01-DSPTCH <img width="1042" height="1042" width_o="1042" height_o="1042" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a93e86f5720ed4c4a42e1316eda78a796dc93551c17fd8fd793e7bb688a8b382/1-Interview-01.png" data-mid="70750587" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a93e86f5720ed4c4a42e1316eda78a796dc93551c17fd8fd793e7bb688a8b382/1-Interview-01.png" /> <img width="1044" height="1044" width_o="1044" height_o="1044" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/253e67ff6b4aa4f4509a5ee99475670a0e83332bc9fc83bd053b3a314b93d19f/1-DSPTCH-02.png" data-mid="70750590" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/253e67ff6b4aa4f4509a5ee99475670a0e83332bc9fc83bd053b3a314b93d19f/1-DSPTCH-02.png" /> <img width="1042" height="1042" width_o="1042" height_o="1042" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e29f740cd58d6c18842c5e67f2029d8a3e25bbe16b346469c747614486e510f/1-AiR-01.png" data-mid="70750591" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8e29f740cd58d6c18842c5e67f2029d8a3e25bbe16b346469c747614486e510f/1-AiR-01.png" /> DSPTCH #01 Nicky Ni, Chicago | May, 11 2020 I never expected the first DSPTCH to be so difficult to write. I was going to provide a recap on some of the art-world highlights in relation to “Transition,” the theme of this issue. I was going to share my excitement of having participated in the live performance by&nbsp;the legendary Detroit-based DJ and producer Carl Craig and his long-time collaborator, German rercord producer and musician Moritz von Oswald, at Dia: Beacon, New York. The museum opened Carl Craig’s inaugural museum retrospective, Party/After-Party, which takes form in a sound installation that takes up the entire basement of what was previously the Nabisco packaging factory. Detroit techno which in spirit melts the human and the machine, inherits industrial sound that belongs to the water lines of Motown factories. Craig’s convoluting soundscape imbued with the haunting neon-green light radiated from Dan Flavin’s monumental fluorescent light installation, Untitled (to you, Heiner, with admiration and affection), rejuvenates the architectural history of the space. And the live performance itself, though highly anticipated by many technoheads in the audience ready to dance, only offered echoes that reminisce on the the golden days of underground warehouse raves: as an early evening party with a controlled entrance at a high-brow postmodernist museum, with technically nothing allowed on the dance floor (drinks, drugs, cigarettes, you name it), everything seemed too…“perfect.” Nevertheless, retrospectively speaking, the decision of having an opening party-performance was clairvoyant—the event was time-marked for Saturday, March 7th, the last time that I can recall being in a crowd, rubbing shoulders in a group packed like a can of sardines. Soon after COVID-19 hit, the entire globe was on pause. After weeks of confusion, Starbucks removed the chairs in their stores; luxury brands boarded up their storefronts; some bars and restaurants closed permanently, while other night clubs pleaded to save the scene. Then came the unemployment, perhaps more pervasive than the disease that had caused it. As I write this, Gov. Pritzker of Illinois announced a five-phase plan for reopening, largely uncertain about when bars or clubs will be able open again to the public, let alone museums and galleries which have the tendency to bookend crises such as a pandemic—always the first to close and the last to reopen. At a time of enormous economic difficulty, Art has once again successfully proved how useless it is. It happened to be at this time that we went from LITHIUM, a 1500 sq ft art space in Pilsen, Chicago, dedicated to exhibiting time-based art, to TNL, an experimental online editorial and curatorial platform in hopes of supporting emerging new media artists. How novel it is, the idea of moving everything online. An idea so novel that every art institution across the world has been “copying” our idea in the last few months. Guggenheim Museum released more ebooks at no cost to its readers. JSTOR made most of its databases free to the public and expanded the amount of available ebooks for certain academic institutions—excluding secondary schools, however. International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is working towards proceeding with the festival virtually, whereas Glasgow International has postponed its entire program to 2021 while offering a handful of new commissions on its digital platform. Multi-media artist Kate Lain collaborated with her fellow artists and compiled a monumental list of free video art—many are through artists’ submissions. The Serpentine Galleries stream live content 24/7 on Twitch. Their most recent digital commission, Catharsis, by Danish new media artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen, takes you on a meditative tour through a simulated ancient forest. Music festivals have also moved online, casting a voyeuristic eye into homes of celebrities—some of which we seldom get to see. Meanwhile, Boiler Room continues to stream live sets, except this time directly from the artists’ homes. Take a look at Ciel’s set from the Boiler Room’s series, ‘Streaming from Isolation,” if you want to dance by yourself or with your Zoom friends. Within days of the lockdown, the Internet has become saturated with information to share and things to do. However, as days go by, satisfaction diminishes and the void inside us continues to grow. Because there’s only so much you can do through a bright screen. This time of #wfh is where people aim to utilize the full potential of the Internet for all sorts of interconnectivities, but at the same time, it also highlights the inadequacies of going “digital only.” Virtual openings may flourish, but you simply can’t engage with a painting or a sculpture on Zoom the same way as you would in a gallery. In the age of digital reproduction, our irl existence that continuously senses the menace from its digital counterpart can now proudly affirm that the physical presence is indeed irreplaceable. We can move much of our work and activities online, but we can’t necessarily retain the authenticity of an in-person experience. As it appears to be a mutual agreement among most educational institutions that providing more online access to free information would be beneficial to all, a new question arises: if many institutions and festivals were able to pivot so quickly and move their programs online, or temporarily open up their archives and databases to the public—all in the name of accessibility and social responsibility—why hadn’t they done it long before the pandemic? A Slate article used notable examples to talk about the ways in which the coronavirus revealed some of the rules that have been so deeply embedded in our daily life to be completely arbitrary and punitive: TSA liquid limit, water and electricity deliverance, broadband data caps for cell phones and wi-fi, to name a few. These standards are not bound to any limitation on physical capacity but are artificial setups for easier regulation or greater capitalization. Under these unprecedented circumstances, art institutions—in addition to furloughing or laying off a good portion of employees they deem expendable—are all of a sudden content with offering knowledge for free. There already exists enough coverage that casts doubt on the true nature of “nonprofit” institutions which claim their ethos to be rooted in community and caring for each other while doing the exact opposite. On a more constructive note, perhaps COVID-19 is providing us a period of time for deep reflection, on survival, on ethics, and on multiple aspects of life that we had taken for granted before or were programmed to accept. I’m sure that the next time we meet in person, the time spent will be precious. Or even better, we will be able to clink our glasses again and dance together. On a greater scale, let’s hope that art museums, film and music festivals, having had all the necessary online platforms already set up, can keep up their currently free programming and continue to take full advantage of the Internet that connects the audiences from all over the world.&nbsp; We are all in transition right now. https://lithium.gallery/01-1ON1 Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:52:19 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/01-1ON1 <img width="1044" height="1044" width_o="1044" height_o="1044" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42db1d87335f5c7b582ab7d9bcdec4ac83de8cac83d314e076d629aaae817628/1-Interview-02.png" data-mid="70715065" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/42db1d87335f5c7b582ab7d9bcdec4ac83de8cac83d314e076d629aaae817628/1-Interview-02.png" /> <img width="1042" height="1042" width_o="1042" height_o="1042" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae9ef5d49db289149f36ff8a9aed401d0d318ae60454af1ee2bcff4f41937861/1-DSPTCH-01.png" data-mid="70716116" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae9ef5d49db289149f36ff8a9aed401d0d318ae60454af1ee2bcff4f41937861/1-DSPTCH-01.png" /> <img width="1042" height="1042" width_o="1042" height_o="1042" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e29f740cd58d6c18842c5e67f2029d8a3e25bbe16b346469c747614486e510f/1-AiR-01.png" data-mid="70736051" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8e29f740cd58d6c18842c5e67f2029d8a3e25bbe16b346469c747614486e510f/1-AiR-01.png" /> 1ON1 with Mantis Shrimp Creative Bangalore, Manisha AR |&nbsp;30 April, 2020 Based out of Bangalore, they are looking to produce fresh work through collaborations with emerging artists and musicians across India.When I returned to Bangalore after three years of living in Chicago, one of the first things I decided to do was go to a party. I wanted to see how much of an impact the ban on live&nbsp;music was having on venues across the city. So I reached out to an old friend of mine– Kunal Singh who according to Instagram was at some exciting parties around the city. He invited me to a party at a hotel bar named Aqua for which he was working the visuals. It’s hard to fully understand what he does from just scrolling through his Instagram which is why I was excited to be at this party for my investigation. Over beers that night, I learned that while I had been away, Kunal Singh co-founded Mantis Shrimp Creative along with his friend Karan Katke. Online music magazine Wild City describes them as “a new media company dedicated to changing the way clubs and exhibits engage with visual artists.” On a purely aesthetic level, their primary goal is to excite the audience using a projector, computer visualisations and the occasional lighting console to create enticing visuals. Being able to tailor projections to various surfaces and shapes is known as projection mapping; a technique favored by large scale events like music festivals and concerts. Mantis Shrimp Creative is one of the few engineers-turned-artists duo who are bringing projection mapping into more accessible cultural spaces like malls, clubs and flea markets. &nbsp;Video mapping by Mantis Shrimp Creative Friends from high school who reunited in engineering college, Kunal and Karan went their separate ways again after they graduated: Karan went to Prague Film School in 2016 to study cinematography while Kunal stayed in Bangalore working in sales and marketing at startups. Back at the MSC Mansion, Kunal tells me, “I think I was always inclined towards doing something creative or artistic, if not professionally then as a hobby. When he [Karan] came back from Prague, he showed me this cool concept where I could turn any surface into a screen.” After returning from Prague, Karan worked for the production house Momo Media, writing and directing ad films. “Back then we met outside of our day-job schedules, he [Kunal] had the laptop and I had the projector and we did a bunch of experiments in and around the city,” one of their early collaborations came to fruition outside of Kunal’s office on Church Street. They began to collaborate and experiment early last year and officially registered as Mantis Shrimp Creative in September 2019. “I was fascinated, and I am still fascinated by their work,” says art activist and photographer Roshini Kumar, one of Mantis Shrimp's early collaborators, She describes their work as fluid and full of endless possibilities– from creating an ambiance for an event to conceptualizing a photo shoot. In January 2019– when MSC was still in its early years– Roshini hosted the fifth edition of Open House, an initiative that brings artists and freelancers together to a flea market-like space to fundraise for different social causes. The aim of this event, Roshini tells me, is to help creators meet each other and connect, in addition to, of course, showcasing and selling their work. Kunal proposed the idea of working with Roshini to provide visuals to accompany performances and a video installation within the space. In talking to Roshini, I learned another thing that makes Mantis Shrimp stand out- their creativity and willingness to go the extra mile. “I sent them a concept brief and Kunal really understood the goals of Open House so it was easy for me to trust their ideas, “ she told me. Kunal and Karan did the rest- from picking images, to choosing colors as well as organizing the logistics for the projections. After the event, excited by the outcome, Roshini also collaborated with them for an experimental fashion shoot and expressed interest in working with them again on future projects. <img width="627" height="627" width_o="627" height_o="627" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a7027bcc9ea1bad5b73da181e77b44fe7b6040bb1d3d680d1a33dd01c6c547b8/IMG_20190822_160426_943.jpg" data-mid="68824503" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/627/i/a7027bcc9ea1bad5b73da181e77b44fe7b6040bb1d3d680d1a33dd01c6c547b8/IMG_20190822_160426_943.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="4000" width_o="3000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a882842826b2c6da86951011e2ba22fc88a511a2f14e7ad1f607b486ee5d84ae/IMG_20190605_113655.jpg" data-mid="68824746" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a882842826b2c6da86951011e2ba22fc88a511a2f14e7ad1f607b486ee5d84ae/IMG_20190605_113655.jpg" /> <img width="960" height="1280" width_o="960" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd765fb58876d40a694fc88b8925a44228c59fe655e3e58f62713663a753456c/IMG-20180119-WA0024-2.jpg" data-mid="68824778" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/960/i/cd765fb58876d40a694fc88b8925a44228c59fe655e3e58f62713663a753456c/IMG-20180119-WA0024-2.jpg" /> Kunal Singh and Karan Katke, the faces behind Mantis Shrimp Creative If you scroll through Mantis Shrimp Creative’s Instagram account, you will see the full gamut of their clientele. Their posts oscillate between documentations of events they’ve collaborated on and independent visual experiments. One of their more recent posts titled ‘Genetic Mutation’, is a series of animations in three Instagram posts. They all start as a singular hollow square which expands, stretches and eventually resembles the shape of a gene. Paired with suspenseful music, it lulls the viewer into a meditative daze. I asked them about audience reactions to their work and they said, “People have been momentarily enthralled by the experience and then moved on. But then we also meet people who find us and ask where else they could use this. It's also how we end up finding our next gig.” Besides working with musicians at venues like Puma Shuffle, the Bohemian House and Aqua, they have worked with corporate clients. In October every year, India celebrates Diwali, the Festival of Lights. In 2019, they partnered with RMZ Galleria in Yelahanka, a shopping mall, to create an interactive experience for the visitors for Diwali. The event was called 'LUMA' for which they collaborated with Bangalore based curator Shraddha Nair, emerging artists Vivek Chockalingam, Navin Kushwah, sculptor, digital artist Romicon Revola and shadow puppeteer Sindhe Chithambara Rao and his troupe from Andhra Pradesh, India. In addition to showcasing the works of other artists, Mantis Shrimp also showed a film they produced called ‘Conscious, Conscience’ (Oct 2019) which chronicles the story of mankind and the things they’ve achieved. Along the same lines, they worked on another short film called Safar (Dec 2019) which uses Bangalore city as a blank canvas with all of the people they project are going places, jumping between buildings and cruising the city late at night– much like the boys at MSC Mansion. Albeit a novice attempt, these films are a peek into their creative vision. Safar (December, 2019) Back at their apartment, we continue to talk about their business model and future projects. “Honestly, we are not usually in the spotlight. The concept of having a visual element is not...,” Karan trails off as he tries to find the words. At a loss, he finally changes tracks, “Even [event] promoters don’t know why they are doing it.” Despite dealing with clients who don't know what they want and rely on the creators to sell the concept, they sound very confident about the value of their work. “We’ve also been thinking about what we want to do as a company, like what’s going to keep us going both monetarily and creatively,” Kunal tells me while Karan nods in agreement. One of their primary goals for the upcoming year is to compile a show reel and deck which they can use to pitch new clients, “we’ve worked for a year and we want to compile that and approach new people, 2019 was rushed because we did one thing and then it was a domino effect where we just responded to requests,” Karan tells me. I ask them about their upcoming projects and they hesitate for a moment before saying “top secret, we could tell you but then we would have to kill you.” We burst out laughing but they don’t divulge any more information. I’ll probably just have to call Kunal and show up at one of their events to know what’s next. Images courtesy Mantis Shrimp Creative <img width="5918" height="3945" width_o="5918" height_o="3945" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5367b4f48c700c9c693447c46412800e7113e2d0d82ecbbe1ad90dfc7b3eadc4/DSC_0451.jpg" data-mid="68824521" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5367b4f48c700c9c693447c46412800e7113e2d0d82ecbbe1ad90dfc7b3eadc4/DSC_0451.jpg" /> <img width="5753" height="3211" width_o="5753" height_o="3211" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1490ca179390b76094f1ee2ceda5c0033ad47437c404c0ca55d263dafa04f25d/DSC_0460-2.jpg" data-mid="68826643" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1490ca179390b76094f1ee2ceda5c0033ad47437c404c0ca55d263dafa04f25d/DSC_0460-2.jpg" /> <img width="5643" height="3187" width_o="5643" height_o="3187" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/12e650f5166efbec06911b6d59f3388106a28f6167149350c9197b18ba01ecf3/DSC_0467.jpg" data-mid="68826805" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/12e650f5166efbec06911b6d59f3388106a28f6167149350c9197b18ba01ecf3/DSC_0467.jpg" /> Still from Mantis Shrimp Creative’s film showcased at the LUMA Festival in 2019 https://lithium.gallery/IMPACTinterview Tue, 25 May 2021 13:46:57 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/IMPACTinterview <img width="3001" height="3001" width_o="3001" height_o="3001" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/885926ebe3fd70ebbc2685e86a0b2498f038f67d2c18c83180b547b4497b67fd/1-impact-2021-05.png" data-mid="109453605" border="0" data-scale="74" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/885926ebe3fd70ebbc2685e86a0b2498f038f67d2c18c83180b547b4497b67fd/1-impact-2021-05.png" /> Special Feature IMPACT 2021 May 3 - 10, 2021 a daily interview release.May 10 - 19, 2021 Limited-run Replay. Unconventional circumstances make for unconventional art. This year’s IMPACT Performance Festival took place virtually on the weekend of April 17 &amp; 18, 2021. For this collaboration, TNL brings to you short 1ON1 sessions with all eight participating artists with a limited-run replay of their performances. Read the interviews.&nbsp; May 2021 <img width="480" height="480" width_o="480" height_o="480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/86745a5bbddb53f80844db36967ce54ba7732b5b8c3395edb076c25c443806c3/giphy-1.gif" data-mid="109453269" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/480/i/86745a5bbddb53f80844db36967ce54ba7732b5b8c3395edb076c25c443806c3/giphy-1.gif" /> Not The End Party Sunday, June 23, 8 p.m. - 12 a.m.DJs: Eduardo Rosario. Kyle Werle aka. Psychic Hone, and more! LITHIUM is permanently moving out from its current Pilsen location and going into a hiatus. The past two years have been so magical with all the love and support from the Chicago arts community. We also have been lucky to call Pilsen home, to be part of the 2nd Friday gallery walk, and to be neighbor to so many other wonderful artist-run spaces. And most importantly, we would like to thank all the artists and curators who have shown their work here. You trusted us with a leap of faith, understood our next-to-nothing budget, and were willing to work around all the limitations to realize your projects in most creative ways. Even though the gallery space has come to an end, it is Not The End of LITHIUM’s mission to support time-based art. Please be on the lookout for our next phase of shape-shifting! June 2019 <img width="4093" height="5234" width_o="4093" height_o="5234" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6b70b9ff998c9a6ed9d6a828f38d6e99a70b5ab3e1f4febe606410da57cd4ea9/Poster_2_vertical.jpg" data-mid="109453267" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6b70b9ff998c9a6ed9d6a828f38d6e99a70b5ab3e1f4febe606410da57cd4ea9/Poster_2_vertical.jpg" /> Raising Girls Friday, June 7 2019, 8 p.m.Cassandra Davis in collaboration with Katinka Kleijn LITHIUM is pleased to announce Raising Girls, a video installation and time-based sculptural sound-performance by artist Cassandra Davis and cellist Katinka Kleijn. Davis and Kleijn will attempt to divine the inherent sounds from within textiles, bodies, and exhaustive tension. A phenomenological expedition fully heard but only seen with the light from Davis’ video Raising Girls, the artists will premiere this 30-minute work composed specially for LITHIUM Gallery.Raising Girls parses out gender, sexuality and patriarchy within Evangelical America. It explores the gendering of girls, James Dobson’s pardon of serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy, reclamation of sacred feminine spaces, play, innocence, and the queer gaze. Frames of the video move between what feels like archival images, to crime scene photos, to glimpses of intimate bodies. Flashbacks form an afterimage that burns a memory that is mesmerizingly difficult to reconstruct. Through sound and image, Davis and Kleijn propose new ways of accessing embodied trauma.Special thanks to artists María Luisa Conlon, Polly Jane, Ona Siân, and Chloe Cucinotta for their collaboration in Raising Girls.Cassandra Davis is a Chicago-based artist with an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their solo shows include No Body on Earth But Yours in conjunction with the Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Of Roses and Jessamine at SUGS gallery in Chicago, with an upcoming solo show at G-CADD in St. Louis. Davis has shown in group exhibitions and screenings at York St. John University, UK, Tile Blush in Miami, FL, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, The American Medium in NYC, Terrain Biennial, Chicago Home Theater Festival, Mana Contemporary, Sullivan Galleries, and the Silent Funny in Chicago, IL. They have been awarded the Oxbow Summer Artist's MFA Residency, Roger Brown Artist's Residency, and the IOTO Summer Residency, Shapiro Center Eager Research Grant, the World Less Traveled Grant, Dean’s Merit Scholarship, and has been lecturing faculty in Fiber and Material Studies at SAIC. Davis is currently an artist in residence at the Chicago Artist’s Coalition as part of the HATCH program.Cellist Katinka Kleijn enjoys a genre-defying career in solo, improvisation, chamber music and orchestral performance. As soloist she appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Hague Philharmonic, and at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater. She premiered Dai Fujikura’s Cello Concerto at Lincoln Center, with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), which was released live on Minabel/SONY Japan Records. Known for her innovative individual projects, she appeared in recital at the Library of Congress, Carolina Performing Arts, and the Chicago Humanities Festival. A collaboration with the performance art duo Industry of the Ordinary resulted in “Intelligence in the Human-Machine”, a duo for cellist and brainwaves. This year, the City of Chicago presented “Water on the Bridge”, for 30 cellos, 2 cellists and swimming pool at the 2000 square foot Eckhart Park Natatorium, created in collaboration with Lia Kohl.Additional projects include a VR/3D video of Bryan Jacobs’ “ly ful hood” for cello and robot instruments, commissioning Marcos Balter for a Bach Suite companion piece, performing in duo with Du Yun, with Tortoise at Pitchfork Midwinter, and receiving a commission for the free improv Instigation Festival Orchestra in Chicago. A member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the International Contemporary Ensemble, she has a working duo with guitarist Bill MacKay. Original poster by Jany Zhang! June 2019 <img width="1400" height="1400" width_o="1400" height_o="1400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b2047d07391f9360f8da812bd956b4b01f8da126ef06f43849b415eb58a24cc5/SD-squareSocialMedia.jpg" data-mid="109453266" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b2047d07391f9360f8da812bd956b4b01f8da126ef06f43849b415eb58a24cc5/SD-squareSocialMedia.jpg" /> Sensible Decisions May 24 – 26, 2019 Pop-Up Reception: Friday, May 24, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. -- Isaac Asimov Sensible Decisions takes off from science fiction, soars in the imagination about living in a cyborgian future world, and lands at critically addressing some of the darker aspects of technology of the present. Featuring works by Jenna Boyles, Ziv Ze’ev Cohen, Bryan Sperry, and Kyle Werle, this exhibition will be presented as an interwoven installation that expresses human’s relationship to technology fraught with not only awe and joy but also mistrust and fear. Forging everyday objects, trash, and detritus into humanoid sculptures, the installation speculates a future human species rid of the burden of the flesh while confronting the material reality that upholds any whimsical imagination about technology. Additionally, the four artists will introduce performative elements to the show, employing light, motion, and sound to maneuver our tactile, aural, and optical senses. Where does the boundary of the body begin and where does the machine end? How will human senses function as a bodiless subject? Can there be a New Flesh? In this exhibition, the artists will provide their sensible decisions. This exhibition is collectively curated by the participating artists in collaboration with LITHIUM. Jenna Boyles Contemporary humanity is characterized by continuously leaving behind material and informational traces. Jenna Boyles works with textiles, circuitry, and found objects, applying craft techniques and a DIY approach to the subject of waste as it pertains to current political and environmental issues. Boyles holds a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the past five years, she has led numerous workshops on creative reuse and soft circuitry. Boyles is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and adjunct assistant faculty at University of Illinois at Chicago. Ziv Ze’ev Cohen is a visual artist with an emphasis on technology. His work functions as experiential platforms through which technology mediates an experience in relation to the human body. He highlights the power struggle between humans and machines, as well as people’s mistrust and misunderstanding of technology. Often these dynamics produces a sense of wonder, fear, even transcendence. Through his work, he challenges the senses of both human and machine alike, often speculating the future, to reflect on the impact machines have on our society today. Cohen’s work has been exhibited worldwide, recently at Ars Electronica festival in Austria and at the Museum of China Academy of Art at Hangzhou, China. Bryan Sperry has been a force in the Chicago-area art scene for two decades now. He plays a vital role in the formation and operation of many local galleries and art events including the Around The Coyote Arts Festival and The Pilsen Art Walk. He is a founding member of The Art Attack Gallery, Second Fridays in Pilsen, and his own Sperry Studios. Sperry began his painting career as a young man growing up in the blue-collar "Pilsen" neighborhood of Chicago's near south side. By experimenting with different media and drawing on the wealth of previously established genres as he matured, Bryan's work and perspective began to become a fluent language for him. His art hence has become the vehicle of his overall philosophy. Kyle Werle aka. Psychic Honey is a Chicago based musician, artist, instrument builder, and indie game maker. They use self-created emergent artificial intelligence systems to forge sculptural sounds and rhythms. Their label voidpulse was started in the year 2015 to advocate experimental sound works. Their music is based heavily on improvisation, organic composition, and textural sound fields. It is an exploration of alien consciousness envisioning new forms of perception. It is a voyage into fiercely independent creation through intuition and expanding understanding of our existence. Original poster designed by Kyle Werle! May 2019 <img width="1125" height="1454" width_o="1125" height_o="1454" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8924605f5dcb122f5e7e47707ae833dd069c13c209b3d8fdcfbf112f8f7a3fb2/lithium_flyer1-1.jpg" data-mid="109453264" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8924605f5dcb122f5e7e47707ae833dd069c13c209b3d8fdcfbf112f8f7a3fb2/lithium_flyer1-1.jpg" /> Touch Me Everywhere Softer May 3 - 17, 2019Opening reception: May 3, 6 - 9 p.m.Final opening reception: May 17, 6 - 9 p.m. LITHIUM is pleased to announce Touch Me Everywhere Softer, an unstable exhibition by Jessica Tucker that will transform over the course of two weeks. I meet with projections, I do not make them.They change the world into replicas and relics.Accumulated copies, automatic debris.Simulations of an unknowable face,tempting traces to an unstable origin."In my work, I want to host heightened experiences of a kind of weird intimacy that is at once disturbing and deeply comforting. This weird intimacy is suspended in a space between the real and the simulated, both full of possibilities for bliss and for terror. I work with video, performance, interactive sculpture, and music to stage the strange, elusive endeavors of self-awareness and self-production. Immersive, seductive, saturated, and often disorienting, my videos and performances reconfigure tropes of the social Internet and commercial media industry to question the nature of intimacy, fantasy, anxiety, and nostalgia. Identity seems to fluctuate, desire and disturbance mingle, and the artifice of technology is both omnipresent and always just out of reach." -- Jessica Tucker Jessica Tucker is a new media artist and musician currently based in Chicago.Original poster designed by the artist! May 2019 <img width="1072" height="1388" width_o="1072" height_o="1388" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5e8b98fb8ff8e1181250ccc6c181e9fc430c3252076c1a4f2d0a09ab9cba2239/gif.gif" data-mid="109453260" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5e8b98fb8ff8e1181250ccc6c181e9fc430c3252076c1a4f2d0a09ab9cba2239/gif.gif" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bccf77a2ab9a2dbf995d3138c9cb3d677f3c84a8e0a40792d13454953e7a6f90/ZangAndi_2.jpg" data-mid="109453261" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bccf77a2ab9a2dbf995d3138c9cb3d677f3c84a8e0a40792d13454953e7a6f90/ZangAndi_2.jpg" />Aspartame, Citral &amp; Rayon, installation view, 2019. Image courtesy of Andi Zang. <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f6103f8013cb4804e895a600b435989e4306b06d7fdba6d2c7bd9cce10209b80/ZangAndi_3.jpg" data-mid="109453262" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f6103f8013cb4804e895a600b435989e4306b06d7fdba6d2c7bd9cce10209b80/ZangAndi_3.jpg" /> Phil Mulliken, Untitled (Trash) (2019), installation view. Image courtesy of Andi Zang. <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae05fca330a9707b81e9f00cfddcf62487093db4dd0d7692b6e298e26a24990c/ZangAndi_4.jpg" data-mid="109453263" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae05fca330a9707b81e9f00cfddcf62487093db4dd0d7692b6e298e26a24990c/ZangAndi_4.jpg" />Fran. E Gallagher, Untitled (2019), installation view. Image courtesy of Andi Zang. Aspartame, Citral &amp; Rayon April 12—27, 2019 Opening Reception: Friday, April 12, 5:30—9:30 p.m. Aspartame: A very sweet substance used an artificial sweetener, chiefly in low-calorie products Citral: A fragrant liquid occurring in citrus or lemongrass oils and used in flavorings and perfumes Rayon: A textile fiber or silky fabric made from regenerated cellulose (viscose) Aspartame, Citral &amp; Rayon is an interwoven audiovisual installation featuring works by multi-disciplinary artists Fran. E Gallagher, Phil Mulliken, and 李克非Coffe Lee. It is an exhibition that explores what wave-based mediums such as light and sound sometimes fail to provide us through the form of representation. Let us now turn our attention to our other senses, namely the gustative, the olfactory, and the tactile, and ponder on the possibility of using substitution as a method instead of representation to rethink our visual and auditory experiences. How do our artificial processes of extraction, synthesis, and addition create end products that are thin layers of fiction that become another kind of reality? This is a show about things that are distorted just enough to maintain veneers of their previous lives while directing our attention to something else – a mirage, a déjà vu, a misplaced piece of memory, a strange familiarity, a thought that will come to mind in a second, or a presence that can only be understood as "something different." A Materialist checklist of the show (in no particular order): Laminated wood, tempered glass, cotton, enamel, oak, electricity, rubber, steel, copper, paper, acrylic fibers, pigments, resin, vinyl, adhesive, quartz, sand, sand, and more sand... A checklist for the senses (in no particular order): Lemon, sunshine, comfort, diet coke, natural, fart, ticking clock, balcony, effervescent tablets, straw, buttons, key hole, bustling crowd, anger, discomfort, door knob, poetry, aliens, bell rings... A Human checklist of the show (in alphabetical order by last name): Fran. E Gallagher is a creator of devised theater, and a collaborator with performing objects. Our focus is on the evolution and narrative of the living object; technology, mechanical machine, plant, creature, and furniture. These objects possess an inner life of their own; they express it by transforming in front of the viewer. Fran, and their collaborators, desire to expose the performative aspects of life as it continues to unfold. Phil Mulliken is a writer, new media artist, and perpetual student of literature. Mulliken works with high definition CGI simulations which pit the spectacular nature of computer graphics against the brute banality of mundane objects. The result is a kind of computer-generated poetics, work which turns the high-gloss world of simulated spectacle back on itself—a procedural disaster in your living room, a synthetic tragedy just over the fence. Mulliken lives and works in Chicago, IL, and will receive an MFA in writing from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in spring of 2019. 李克非Coffe Lee is a Chinese indie&nbsp;musician and graphic designer based in Shanghai. He has released several digital albums and EPs including&nbsp;Hamilton House&nbsp;(福州大楼),&nbsp;from which the original sound scores for this show are sourced. April 2019 https://lithium.gallery/Aspartame-Citral-Rayon Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:39:01 +0000 lithium.gallery https://lithium.gallery/Aspartame-Citral-Rayon <img width="480" height="480" width_o="480" height_o="480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/86745a5bbddb53f80844db36967ce54ba7732b5b8c3395edb076c25c443806c3/giphy-1.gif" data-mid="65667132" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/480/i/86745a5bbddb53f80844db36967ce54ba7732b5b8c3395edb076c25c443806c3/giphy-1.gif" /> Not The End Party Sunday, June 23, 8 p.m. - 12 a.m.DJs: Eduardo Rosario. Kyle Werle aka. Psychic Hone, and more! LITHIUM is permanently moving out from its current Pilsen location and going into a hiatus. The past two years have been so magical with all the love and support from the Chicago arts community. We also have been lucky to call Pilsen home, to be part of the 2nd Friday gallery walk, and to be neighbor to so many other wonderful artist-run spaces. And most importantly, we would like to thank all the artists and curators who have shown their work here. You trusted us with a leap of faith, understood our next-to-nothing budget, and were willing to work around all the limitations to realize your projects in most creative ways. Even though the gallery space has come to an end, it is Not The End of LITHIUM’s mission to support time-based art. Please be on the lookout for our next phase of shape-shifting! June 2019 <img width="4093" height="5234" width_o="4093" height_o="5234" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6b70b9ff998c9a6ed9d6a828f38d6e99a70b5ab3e1f4febe606410da57cd4ea9/Poster_2_vertical.jpg" data-mid="65659315" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6b70b9ff998c9a6ed9d6a828f38d6e99a70b5ab3e1f4febe606410da57cd4ea9/Poster_2_vertical.jpg" /> Raising Girls Friday, June 7 2019, 8 p.m.Cassandra Davis in collaboration with Katinka Kleijn LITHIUM is pleased to announce Raising Girls, a video installation and time-based sculptural sound-performance by artist Cassandra Davis and cellist Katinka Kleijn. Davis and Kleijn will attempt to divine the inherent sounds from within textiles, bodies, and exhaustive tension. A phenomenological expedition fully heard but only seen with the light from Davis’ video Raising Girls, the artists will premiere this 30-minute work composed specially for LITHIUM Gallery.Raising Girls parses out gender, sexuality and patriarchy within Evangelical America. It explores the gendering of girls, James Dobson’s pardon of serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy, reclamation of sacred feminine spaces, play, innocence, and the queer gaze. Frames of the video move between what feels like archival images, to crime scene photos, to glimpses of intimate bodies. Flashbacks form an afterimage that burns a memory that is mesmerizingly difficult to reconstruct. Through sound and image, Davis and Kleijn propose new ways of accessing embodied trauma.Special thanks to artists María Luisa Conlon, Polly Jane, Ona Siân, and Chloe Cucinotta for their collaboration in Raising Girls.Cassandra Davis is a Chicago-based artist with an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their solo shows include No Body on Earth But Yours in conjunction with the Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Of Roses and Jessamine at SUGS gallery in Chicago, with an upcoming solo show at G-CADD in St. Louis. Davis has shown in group exhibitions and screenings at York St. John University, UK, Tile Blush in Miami, FL, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, The American Medium in NYC, Terrain Biennial, Chicago Home Theater Festival, Mana Contemporary, Sullivan Galleries, and the Silent Funny in Chicago, IL. They have been awarded the Oxbow Summer Artist's MFA Residency, Roger Brown Artist's Residency, and the IOTO Summer Residency, Shapiro Center Eager Research Grant, the World Less Traveled Grant, Dean’s Merit Scholarship, and has been lecturing faculty in Fiber and Material Studies at SAIC. Davis is currently an artist in residence at the Chicago Artist’s Coalition as part of the HATCH program.Cellist Katinka Kleijn enjoys a genre-defying career in solo, improvisation, chamber music and orchestral performance. As soloist she appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Hague Philharmonic, and at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater. She premiered Dai Fujikura’s Cello Concerto at Lincoln Center, with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), which was released live on Minabel/SONY Japan Records. Known for her innovative individual projects, she appeared in recital at the Library of Congress, Carolina Performing Arts, and the Chicago Humanities Festival. A collaboration with the performance art duo Industry of the Ordinary resulted in “Intelligence in the Human-Machine”, a duo for cellist and brainwaves. This year, the City of Chicago presented “Water on the Bridge”, for 30 cellos, 2 cellists and swimming pool at the 2000 square foot Eckhart Park Natatorium, created in collaboration with Lia Kohl.Additional projects include a VR/3D video of Bryan Jacobs’ “ly ful hood” for cello and robot instruments, commissioning Marcos Balter for a Bach Suite companion piece, performing in duo with Du Yun, with Tortoise at Pitchfork Midwinter, and receiving a commission for the free improv Instigation Festival Orchestra in Chicago. A member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the International Contemporary Ensemble, she has a working duo with guitarist Bill MacKay. Original poster by Jany Zhang! June 2019 <img width="1400" height="1400" width_o="1400" height_o="1400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b2047d07391f9360f8da812bd956b4b01f8da126ef06f43849b415eb58a24cc5/SD-squareSocialMedia.jpg" data-mid="65647245" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b2047d07391f9360f8da812bd956b4b01f8da126ef06f43849b415eb58a24cc5/SD-squareSocialMedia.jpg" /> Sensible Decisions May 24 – 26, 2019 Pop-Up Reception: Friday, May 24, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. -- Isaac Asimov Sensible Decisions takes off from science fiction, soars in the imagination about living in a cyborgian future world, and lands at critically addressing some of the darker aspects of technology of the present. Featuring works by Jenna Boyles, Ziv Ze’ev Cohen, Bryan Sperry, and Kyle Werle, this exhibition will be presented as an interwoven installation that expresses human’s relationship to technology fraught with not only awe and joy but also mistrust and fear. Forging everyday objects, trash, and detritus into humanoid sculptures, the installation speculates a future human species rid of the burden of the flesh while confronting the material reality that upholds any whimsical imagination about technology. Additionally, the four artists will introduce performative elements to the show, employing light, motion, and sound to maneuver our tactile, aural, and optical senses. Where does the boundary of the body begin and where does the machine end? How will human senses function as a bodiless subject? Can there be a New Flesh? In this exhibition, the artists will provide their sensible decisions. This exhibition is collectively curated by the participating artists in collaboration with LITHIUM. Jenna Boyles Contemporary humanity is characterized by continuously leaving behind material and informational traces. Jenna Boyles works with textiles, circuitry, and found objects, applying craft techniques and a DIY approach to the subject of waste as it pertains to current political and environmental issues. Boyles holds a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the past five years, she has led numerous workshops on creative reuse and soft circuitry. Boyles is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and adjunct assistant faculty at University of Illinois at Chicago. Ziv Ze’ev Cohen is a visual artist with an emphasis on technology. His work functions as experiential platforms through which technology mediates an experience in relation to the human body. He highlights the power struggle between humans and machines, as well as people’s mistrust and misunderstanding of technology. Often these dynamics produces a sense of wonder, fear, even transcendence. Through his work, he challenges the senses of both human and machine alike, often speculating the future, to reflect on the impact machines have on our society today. Cohen’s work has been exhibited worldwide, recently at Ars Electronica festival in Austria and at the Museum of China Academy of Art at Hangzhou, China. Bryan Sperry has been a force in the Chicago-area art scene for two decades now. He plays a vital role in the formation and operation of many local galleries and art events including the Around The Coyote Arts Festival and The Pilsen Art Walk. He is a founding member of The Art Attack Gallery, Second Fridays in Pilsen, and his own Sperry Studios. Sperry began his painting career as a young man growing up in the blue-collar "Pilsen" neighborhood of Chicago's near south side. By experimenting with different media and drawing on the wealth of previously established genres as he matured, Bryan's work and perspective began to become a fluent language for him. His art hence has become the vehicle of his overall philosophy. Kyle Werle aka. Psychic Honey is a Chicago based musician, artist, instrument builder, and indie game maker. They use self-created emergent artificial intelligence systems to forge sculptural sounds and rhythms. Their label voidpulse was started in the year 2015 to advocate experimental sound works. Their music is based heavily on improvisation, organic composition, and textural sound fields. It is an exploration of alien consciousness envisioning new forms of perception. It is a voyage into fiercely independent creation through intuition and expanding understanding of our existence. Original poster designed by Kyle Werle! May 2019 <img width="1125" height="1454" width_o="1125" height_o="1454" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8924605f5dcb122f5e7e47707ae833dd069c13c209b3d8fdcfbf112f8f7a3fb2/lithium_flyer1-1.jpg" data-mid="65634671" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8924605f5dcb122f5e7e47707ae833dd069c13c209b3d8fdcfbf112f8f7a3fb2/lithium_flyer1-1.jpg" /> Touch Me Everywhere Softer May 3 - 17, 2019Opening reception: May 3, 6 - 9 p.m.Final opening reception: May 17, 6 - 9 p.m. LITHIUM is pleased to announce Touch Me Everywhere Softer, an unstable exhibition by Jessica Tucker that will transform over the course of two weeks. I meet with projections, I do not make them.They change the world into replicas and relics.Accumulated copies, automatic debris.Simulations of an unknowable face,tempting traces to an unstable origin."In my work, I want to host heightened experiences of a kind of weird intimacy that is at once disturbing and deeply comforting. This weird intimacy is suspended in a space between the real and the simulated, both full of possibilities for bliss and for terror. I work with video, performance, interactive sculpture, and music to stage the strange, elusive endeavors of self-awareness and self-production. Immersive, seductive, saturated, and often disorienting, my videos and performances reconfigure tropes of the social Internet and commercial media industry to question the nature of intimacy, fantasy, anxiety, and nostalgia. Identity seems to fluctuate, desire and disturbance mingle, and the artifice of technology is both omnipresent and always just out of reach." -- Jessica Tucker Jessica Tucker is a new media artist and musician currently based in Chicago.Original poster designed by the artist! May 2019 <img width="1072" height="1388" width_o="1072" height_o="1388" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5e8b98fb8ff8e1181250ccc6c181e9fc430c3252076c1a4f2d0a09ab9cba2239/gif.gif" data-mid="39367553" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5e8b98fb8ff8e1181250ccc6c181e9fc430c3252076c1a4f2d0a09ab9cba2239/gif.gif" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bccf77a2ab9a2dbf995d3138c9cb3d677f3c84a8e0a40792d13454953e7a6f90/ZangAndi_2.jpg" data-mid="65419192" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bccf77a2ab9a2dbf995d3138c9cb3d677f3c84a8e0a40792d13454953e7a6f90/ZangAndi_2.jpg" />Aspartame, Citral &amp; Rayon, installation view, 2019. Image courtesy of Andi Zang. <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f6103f8013cb4804e895a600b435989e4306b06d7fdba6d2c7bd9cce10209b80/ZangAndi_3.jpg" data-mid="65419264" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f6103f8013cb4804e895a600b435989e4306b06d7fdba6d2c7bd9cce10209b80/ZangAndi_3.jpg" /> Phil Mulliken, Untitled (Trash) (2019), installation view. Image courtesy of Andi Zang. <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae05fca330a9707b81e9f00cfddcf62487093db4dd0d7692b6e298e26a24990c/ZangAndi_4.jpg" data-mid="65419733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae05fca330a9707b81e9f00cfddcf62487093db4dd0d7692b6e298e26a24990c/ZangAndi_4.jpg" />Fran. E Gallagher, Untitled (2019), installation view. Image courtesy of Andi Zang. Aspartame, Citral &amp; Rayon April 12—27, 2019 Opening Reception: Friday, April 12, 5:30—9:30 p.m. Aspartame: A very sweet substance used an artificial sweetener, chiefly in low-calorie products Citral: A fragrant liquid occurring in citrus or lemongrass oils and used in flavorings and perfumes Rayon: A textile fiber or silky fabric made from regenerated cellulose (viscose) Aspartame, Citral &amp; Rayon is an interwoven audiovisual installation featuring works by multi-disciplinary artists Fran. E Gallagher, Phil Mulliken, and 李克非Coffe Lee. It is an exhibition that explores what wave-based mediums such as light and sound sometimes fail to provide us through the form of representation. Let us now turn our attention to our other senses, namely the gustative, the olfactory, and the tactile, and ponder on the possibility of using substitution as a method instead of representation to rethink our visual and auditory experiences. How do our artificial processes of extraction, synthesis, and addition create end products that are thin layers of fiction that become another kind of reality? This is a show about things that are distorted just enough to maintain veneers of their previous lives while directing our attention to something else – a mirage, a déjà vu, a misplaced piece of memory, a strange familiarity, a thought that will come to mind in a second, or a presence that can only be understood as "something different." A Materialist checklist of the show (in no particular order): Laminated wood, tempered glass, cotton, enamel, oak, electricity, rubber, steel, copper, paper, acrylic fibers, pigments, resin, vinyl, adhesive, quartz, sand, sand, and more sand... A checklist for the senses (in no particular order): Lemon, sunshine, comfort, diet coke, natural, fart, ticking clock, balcony, effervescent tablets, straw, buttons, key hole, bustling crowd, anger, discomfort, door knob, poetry, aliens, bell rings... A Human checklist of the show (in alphabetical order by last name): Fran. E Gallagher is a creator of devised theater, and a collaborator with performing objects. Our focus is on the evolution and narrative of the living object; technology, mechanical machine, plant, creature, and furniture. These objects possess an inner life of their own; they express it by transforming in front of the viewer. Fran, and their collaborators, desire to expose the performative aspects of life as it continues to unfold. Phil Mulliken is a writer, new media artist, and perpetual student of literature. Mulliken works with high definition CGI simulations which pit the spectacular nature of computer graphics against the brute banality of mundane objects. The result is a kind of computer-generated poetics, work which turns the high-gloss world of simulated spectacle back on itself—a procedural disaster in your living room, a synthetic tragedy just over the fence. Mulliken lives and works in Chicago, IL, and will receive an MFA in writing from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in spring of 2019. 李克非Coffe Lee is a Chinese indie&nbsp;musician and graphic designer based in Shanghai. He has released several digital albums and EPs including&nbsp;Hamilton House&nbsp;(福州大楼),&nbsp;from which the original sound scores for this show are sourced. April 2019