2013: Erik Wenzel @ The Storefront

Above: An overhead view of Erik Wenzel's Artforum magazine-based installation "Fernweh," as seen within The Storefront, 2606 N. California Ave., Chicago, IL, on the show's opening night, April 20, 2013.

Erik Wenzel
"Fernweh"
April 20 - May 12, 2013
The Storefront
2606 N. California Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

Erik Wenzel, most obviously recalling Carl Andre, has made use of the floor for the purpose of presenting modular units in a grid pattern. Here, though, the invitation to the audience to walk upon the piece set in Brandon Alvendia’s The Storefront is wanted to be especially cheeky: an institution of sorts (Artforum magazine) and a commercial appropriation of cultural resources (in the form of gallery advertisements) are simultaneously trodden upon, which action symbolically mimics Wenzel’s own “progress” through the real and metaphysical worlds of art.

Above: The artist, Erik Wenzel, at center with a cigarette and a 16 oz. can of beer, discusses "Fernweh" with patrons of The Storefront, 2606 N. California Ave., Chicago, IL, on his show's opening night, April 20, 2013.

Above: The artist, Erik Wenzel, at left, surveys The Storefront gallery, 2606 N. California Ave., Chicago, IL, on the opening night of his "Fernweh" installation, April 20, 2013.

"Wenzel works across disciplines, from visual arts practices to writing. The artist envisions each exhibition he makes as a work in its own right. Fernweh represents the realization of a project that has been developing for a number of years.

Appenzeller Landschaft forms the exhibition’s centerpiece. The gallery’s checked linoleum floor is tiled with several years’ worth of Artforum magazines laid face down. What started as an art-about-art Oedipal gesture unfolded over time into a more complex gesture mixing travel, the idea of 'home', and personal and contemporary art history. The title translates to 'Appenzell countryside' or 'landscape', referring to the photographs of Swiss life, particularly in the Canton and region of Appenzell, which have graced the back cover of the art magazine since the 1980s. Gallerist Bruno Bischofberger has leased this space, honoring his hometown of Appenzell and juxtaposing with brief text about his exhibitions, to represent his gallery’s program. These images, at once spectacular, sentimental, and curiously ethnographic, provide a consistent and compelling counterpoint to the ever changing ebb and flow of trends catalogued within the magazine’s pages.

Viewers step onto the piece and into a landscape. Just like the Swiss topography, Appenzeller Landschaft has its peaks and valleys, created by the varying thicknesses of each issue of the magazine. From the thin copies the 1990s to the phonebook girth of the boom years, from the Spartan aftermath of the latest economic collapse to the recent recovery of high-end economies, the floor’s irregular surface is determined by the number of ads taken out in the periodical. Formally, an aesthetics of compression is at play--the physical experience walking around on magazines, the weight of your body acting on the pages, squeezing them together in a sculptural way.

Travelling through Appenzell, hiking in the pre-Alps, and spending a night in a gasthoff on the side of a mountain during a residency in 2009 left a lasting impression on the artist. Over time Switzerland, particularly Bern, the home of the residency with which Wenzel is affiliated, has become a home away from home for the artist.

The story of Fernweh reads somewhat like a folk tale. In 2011 Wenzel, his cat deceased, in a dead-end job, and the lease on his apartment expiring, chose to leave the country. The possessions he didn’t sell or throw out, he locked up in storage. The stock of Artforums and other magazines he’d collected over the years he bequeathed to Brandon Alvendia, whose Storefront space was up the street from Wenzel’s apartment. For nearly two years Wenzel has lived an itinerant existence, travel through Switzerland, living in Berlin, returning for a time to Chicago, living outside Salzburg for a residency in an old Salt Factory in Austria, traveling by train through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, living the New York life of too many people in too little a space, only to ultimately land, quite fortunately, on the same block as the Storefront, where his cache of art magazines waited, stacked like Donald Judd in the back room.

It is in this spirit of sentimentality, symmetry, and perfect coincidence we present Fernweh, the story of a wayfaring stranger, who struck out into the world only to find his place back where he had started.

Fernweh is a German term connoting an almost physical ache to be in another country."

Quotation above from: http://www.thevisualist.org/2013/04/erik-wenzel-fernweh/

Above:
Images (1-3) April 20, 2013;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

2015: Kate McQuillen @ Comfort Station

Above: An anonymous late-night cyclist about to pass the canted bay window at the center of Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, on February 21, 2015.

Kate McQuillen
"Old Flame"
Curated by Jessie Devereaux
January 24– February 22, 2015
Comfort Station
2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Logan Square
Chicago, IL

http://www.katemcquillen.com/

http://www.comfortstationlogansquare.org/

Saturday night, January 24, 2015: In Chicago, immediately northeast of Logan Square's Illinois Centennial Monument, the doors at 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue are locked. And Comfort Station (a shelter for trolley riders in the 20th century, a venue for arts patrons in the 21st century) is opaque as well as inaccessible. The single story structure's street level windows are filled with gouache-tinted paper, masked and backlit to create the illusion of yellow-orange flames within.

Above: An interior view of Comfort Station's canted bay window filled with paper and backlit for Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, as available for view on February 21, 2015. The white table supporting McQuillen's single-channel video is visible at far right, its monitor half-hidden by the surrounding yellowish material.

Puzzled would-be-attendees of the evening's opening reception periodically circumnavigate the building: looking, vainly, for a way to get in. Taken together with a single-channel video (the small screen of which peeks out towards Milwaukee Avenue) the architectural intervention is the work of thirty-five-year-old Massachusetts native Kate McQuillen, a visual artist selected for the occasion by Comfort Station curatorial panel member Jessie Devereaux. On an adjacent sidewalk a sandwich board bears a message in chalk: McQuillen and Devereaux are available at a nearby location, waiting with refreshments.

Above: An exterior view of the single-channel video component of Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation as seen through the canted bay window at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, on January 24, 2015.

Theatrically, the staging of "Old Flame" is successful enough to engage an interested passerby. It works. Conceptually, the site-specific artwork wants for a paragraph of text which offers a historical ground for the experience. In this place, at this time, what does "Old Flame" mean?

Of course, it isn't fair to reserve that criticism for McQuillen and Devereaux. Chicago's art world, attractive largely for: (a) its schools; and, (b) its non-commercial residency, publication and exhibition system, is filled with young and short-term residents. Consequently, memory is wanting. And we have only few miserable, old, critics to suggest in writing such visual precedents as might exist.

Above: The maquette of Comfort Station's canted bay window (photographed while available for view on February 21, 2015) which was featured in the single-channel video component of Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, January 24– February 22, 2015.

For example, Oak Park resident Alison Ruttan presented (below) a little city of burned-out modelli at Chicago's ADDS DONNA gallery in 2012.[1] And Ruttan's ceramic, architectural structures were each identical in scale to (above) the maquette of Comfort Station's canted bay window featured in McQuillen's single-channel video. In fact, Ruttan has a concurrent show (January 24 - April 26, 2015) featuring said pieces, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," at the Chicago Cultural Center.[2]

Above: A detail of Alison Ruttan's "Natural Disaster" which ran April 15 - May 13, 2012, at ADDS DONNA, 4223 W. Lake Street, #422, Chicago, IL.

Above:An overview of Alison Ruttan's "Natural Disaster," which ran April 15 - May 13, 2012, at ADDS DONNA, 4223 W. Lake Street, #422, Chicago, IL.

Alison Ruttan isn't the only artist worth mentioning. Also running concurrently (January 9 - March 15, 2015) is a group show at the University of Chicago's Logan Center entitled "Lands End," which includes works from now Brooklyn-based Carrie Schneider's 2010-2011 "Burning House" series.[3] Schneider, like McQuillen, produced an architectural prop which was literally set ablaze and photographed, the results of which (below) were first displayed at Chicago's moniquemeloche gallery in 2012.[4]

Above: Carrie Schneider's "Burning House (October, afternoon)" 2010, originally a c-print, 40 x 50 inches. (C) Carrie Schneider.

Above: An installation view of Carrie Schneider's "Burning House," which ran March 31 – May 12, 2012, at moniquemeloche gallery, 2154 W. Division Street, Chicago, IL.

If Alison Ruttan and Carrie Schneider are comparable to Kate McQuillen because of their common choice of subject matter (a building which is being or has been burned) the University of Chicago's Jason Salavon seems good to remember because of his working method: In 2009, Salavon employed computer-controlled projectors inside the Hyde Park Art Center to cause (below) animated, geometric patterns of colored light to appear across the screened clerestory--an effect enjoyable from outside the building.[5]

Above: A still, interior view of Jason Salavon's animated "Spigot (Oracle's Reflection)," which ran September 23, 2009 - February 6, 2010, across the Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: A still, exterior view of Jason Salavon's animated "Spigot (Oracle's Reflection)," which ran September 23, 2009 - February 6, 2010, across the Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL. (C) Jason Salavon.

Every work cited above can be seen to hinge upon an energetic treatment of architecture. And, each artist having concerned herself with a particularly human intervention in the environment, the figure is conspicuous in its absence. Taken together, McQuillen, Ruttan, and Schneider are suggestive of a potentially alarming turn from the controlled, domestic interior of the still life towards some ambiguous violence in the landscape.

What does it mean? In Chicago, in 2015, architecture as ground for some phenomenon of light is found recurrent in practices as diverse as those maintained by Luftwerk and Colleen Plumb. In Chicago, in 2014, the strongest displays at the city's EXPO art fair took the form of architecture. Again, among other examples, Judy Ledgerwood's direct architectural paintings were paired with Anne Wilson's "Portable City" pieces at Rhona Hoffman's gallery in 2011. Whatever else might be happening, in this place, at this time, there's evidence of a widespread and persistent interest in the built dimension of the world.

Above: Kate McQuillen, left, with Jessie Devereaux, right, within McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, for a closing event on February 21, 2015.

Epilogue: Saturday night, February 21, 2015, McQuillen and Devereaux hosted a closing event. Comfort Station's doors were unlocked. And attendees were able to view "Old Flame" from within, which in the end allowed for the best possible experience of the artwork. Comparative knowledge is sometimes available without an appeal to history or geography. In this case it was possible to consider how one's position--inside or outside--determined one's perspective. Even as the individual artwork was opaque when only its exterior was accessible, so too the larger "art world" defies scrutiny from the borders of its territory. And it's easy to forget how many people are inclined to pass unobservant: supposing that the lights and colors therein are no more related to one another than are the sounds in the cacophony of the city itself.

[1] Alison Ruttan
"Natural Disaster"
April 15 - May 13, 2012
ADDS DONNA
4223 W. Lake Street, #422
Chicago, IL 60624
http://addsdonna.com/ADDS_DONNA/Natural_Disaster.html
http://www.alisonruttan.com/cv

[2] Alison Ruttan
"if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
January 24 - April 26, 2015
Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan Ave. Galleries, 1st Floor South
78 E. Washington St.
Chicago, IL 60602
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/ruttan.html

[3] Carrie Schneider
"Lands End" (a group show)
Curated by Zachary Cahill and Katherine Harvath
January 9 - March 15, 2015
Presented by the Reva and David Logan Center
for the Arts and the Department of Visual Arts at
the University of Chicago and the Goethe-Institut
Chicago
915 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
https://arts.uchicago.edu/landsend

[4] Carrie Schneider
"Burning House"
March 31 - May 12, 2012
moniquemeloche gallery
2154 W. Division Street
Chicago, IL 60622
http://moniquemeloche.com/exhibitions/burning-house/
http://carrieschneider.net/work/houseburning.html

[5] Jason Salavon
"Spigot (Oracle's Reflection)"
September 23, 2009 - February 6, 2010
Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery
Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue
Chicago, IL 60615
http://www.hydeparkart.org/exhibitions/jason-salavonem-spigot-oracles-reflection-em
http://www.salavon.com/

Above:

Images (1,2,4,11) February 21, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (3) January 24, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Images (5,6) April 15, 2012;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (7) Copyright 2010 Carrie Schneider.

Image (8) March 31, 2012;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (9) September 23, 2009;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (10) Copyright 2009 Jason Salavon.

2015: Dao Nguyen & Tom Friel in ACRE @ Defibrillator Gallery

Above: The zombie assistant in Tom Friel's ACRE Residency performance at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Dao Nguyen & Tom Friel
"Five Steps to Hell with Poverty"
February 21, 2015
Defibrillator Gallery
1463 W. Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL

http://thomasfriel.com/

http://www.daonguyen.com/

http://www.acreresidency.org/

http://dfbrl8r.org/

"Friel engages audiences as costumed characters both on screen and off. His latest multimedia project, 'To Hell With Poverty,' is part of the nomadic collective, 'Sentient Avatars of Astral Collapse.' Fast-paced, incendiary, and satirical, the work suggests solutions for overcoming capitalist oppression. Nguyen’s 'Blackbox Magik' is an interactive installation at the opening event. Inside a caravan, performer Joshua Kent ritually selects and marks each visitor with a tattoo for the night. Artists Dasha Filippova, Julie Henslee, Jane Jerardi, Aya Nakamura, and Moki Tantoco created tattoo images in response to a system of prompts."

"The opening will include an interactive installation by Nguyen and a live performance by Friel. The closing event (7:00 PM, February 28, 2015) will include a performative artist talk by Friel and a performative lecture by Nguyen called 'bibliologarrhythmia.' Gallery hours are at random or by appointment."

Quotation above from: http://www.thevisualist.org/2015/02/five-steps-to-hell-with-poverty-new-works-by-dao-nguyen-tom-friel/

Above: Tom Friel, in costume, in his ACRE Residency performance at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: ACRE's Emily Green bravely participating in Tom Friel's ACRE Residency performance at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: ACRE's Emily Green bravely participating in Tom Friel's ACRE Residency performance at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: The detritus remaining after Tom Friel's ACRE Residency performance at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: A behind-the-stage view of Tom Friel's ACRE Residency performance props, following his show on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: Standing outside Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL, looking at Tom Friel's ACRE Residency performance props, following his show on February 21, 2015.

Above: Dao Nguyen's "Blackbox Magik" caravan, seen here following her interactive ACRE Residency performance with Joshua Kent at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: Dao Nguyen's "Blackbox Magik" caravan, seen here following her interactive ACRE Residency performance with Joshua Kent at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: Dao Nguyen's "Blackbox Magik" caravan, seen here following her interactive ACRE Residency performance with Joshua Kent at 7:00 PM, on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: Dao Nguyen seen through the lace curtain entry of her "Blackbox Magik" caravan on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: Dao Nguyen seen through the lace curtain entry of her "Blackbox Magik" caravan on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: Dao Nguyen occupying her "Blackbox Magik" caravan on February 21, 2015, within Defibrillator Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above:
Images (1-13) February 21, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos

2015: Liz McCarthy & Soo Shin @ Heaven Gallery

Above: Artists Soo Shin, left, and Elizabeth (Liz) McCarthy, right, candid at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Elizabeth McCarthy and Soo Shin
"The Height Below"
February 6 - March 15, 2015
Heaven Gallery
1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622

http://liz-mccarthy.com/

http://sooshin.org/

http://www.heavengallery.com/

“The body is our general medium for having a world.” - Maurice Merleau-Ponty

"How do we move forward in the world where there is no definite answer or direction ahead? Often we have to reason and grasp at reality through the debris of our own darkness in which we cannot see our path. The exhibition The Height Below presents Chicago-based artists Liz McCarthy and Soo Shin’s recent works that explore the fear of uncertainty, and the struggle in having faith in something we cannot prove. This collection works reference body and ritual as mediums in search for small epiphanies in the unknown path ahead of them."

Quotation above from: http://www.thevisualist.org/2015/02/elizabeth-mccarthy-soo-shin-the-height-below/

Above: Proprietors of Heaven gallery, David Dobie, left, Alfred, center, and Alma Wieser, right, standing before "The Ecountering" 2013, by Elizabeth McCarthy, at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Elizabeth McCarthy's Untitled 2014, archival inkjet prints on wood, 18x38 inches, at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Soo Shin's "Da Capo" 2015, wood, conduit, paint, resin, 56x30x30 inches, at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Front-to-back, (1)  Elizabeth McCarthy's "Um Um"  2015, digital sound, wood, paint, dimensions variable; (2) Soo Shin's "Awaited" 2014, wood, paint, 26x84x20 inches; (3) Elizabeth McCarthy's "The Ecountering" 2013, archival inkjet print, 36x28.5 inches; (4) Soo Shin's "Parallel Hikes" 2015, wood, paint, epoxy, wire, 74x24x70 inches;all at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Elizabeth McCarthy's Untitled 2014, archival inkjet prints on chiffon and wood, 38x32 inches, at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Soo Shin's "The Height Below" 2014, wood, leather, aluminum pipe, chrome clips, 80x24x5.5 inches, at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Elizabeth McCarthy's "Calendars (Altars)" 2014, archival inkjet prints on chiffon, wood, charcoal, wax, dimensions variable, at the opening reception for "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: An overview of "The Height Below," second room, at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Exterior window facing northeast, across Milwaukee Avenue, during "The Height Below," at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above:
Images (1-10) February 6, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos

2015: Cole Pierce @ Roman Susan

Above: Cole Pierce standing before his artwork at the opening reception for "Phase Transition" in Roman Susan gallery, 1224 W. Loyola Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Cole Pierce
"Phase Transition"
February 6 - 26, 2015
Roman Susan
1224 W. Loyola Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626

http://romansusan.org/

http://www.colepierce.com/

"'Phase Transition' is an installation of recent paintings and a wall mural from Pierce’s geometric abstraction series. In his work, he employs multiple layers of vivid optical rhythms, and purposely counters the rational pattern with unpredictable variations."

Quotation above from: http://www.thevisualist.org/2015/02/cole-pierce-phase-transition/

Above: Cole Pierce's painting on conventional support hung over direct architectural painting (both visible in background of first image) within "Phase Transition" at Roman Susan gallery, 1224 W. Loyola Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Cole Pierce standing before his artwork at the opening reception for "Phase Transition" in Roman Susan gallery, 1224 W. Loyola Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Cole Pierce's painting on conventional support hung over direct architectural painting (both visible in background of third image) within "Phase Transition" at Roman Susan gallery, 1224 W. Loyola Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015.

Above: A press JPEG in which color and contrast are seen to vary from work in the gallery, as evident in the third and fourth images here.

Above: The opening reception for "Phase Transition" in Roman Susan gallery, 1224 W. Loyola Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015; unpainted gallery wall and southern window (facing Loyola Avenue) are visible.

Above: The central panel of Roman Susan's gallery window as visible from Loyola Avenue during the opening reception for "Phase Transition" on February 6, 2015;

Above: The entry to Roman Susan gallery, 1224 W. Loyola Avenue, Chicago, IL, on February 6, 2015; painted gallery wall and work on conventional support are visible through glass door.

Above: Loyola Avenue immediately outside Roman Susan gallery, on February 6, 2015.

Above: Roman Susan gallery exterior at left, Loyola Avenue elevated train stop at right, on February 6, 2015.

Above: The Roman Susan gallery bathroom and storage area containing a photograph of gallerist Kristin Abhalter's grandparents--Roman and Susan Lewandowski--wherefrom the gallery's name originated.

Read more:

http://gapersblock.com/ac/2013/02/15/tiny-roman-susan-gallerys-rogers-park-art-injection/

Above:
Images (1-4 and 6-11) February 6, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.
Image (5) copyright Cole Pierce, reproduced for scholarly and archival purposes only.

2015: Christopher Ottinger @ Bert Green Fine Art

Above: Christopher Ottinger's "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration," 2014-2015, wood, enamel, plasma ball, lab stands, rubber, sound, electronic components, on view January 17 - February 28, 2015, at Bert Green Fine Art, Suite 620, 8 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Christopher Ottinger
"Magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9"
January 17 - February 28, 2015
Bert Green Fine Art
Suite 620
8 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL

http://www.bgfa.us/

http://christopherottinger.com/

"Christopher Ottinger works with electricity as his medium. This installation is conceptually inspired by the work of Nikola Tesla, specifically his ideas about wireless power transmission. The [BGFA] project space will be populated with several works which affect one another as well as in combination with an audience. These are intended to be interactive; viewers are encouraged to move parts around and touch things which affect the operation of the flows of electricity and sound."

Quotation above from: http://www.bgfa.us/artists/ottinger/index.html

Above: A detail of Christopher Ottinger's "There is something within me that might be illusion," 2014-2015, wood, enamel, lab stands, glass, copper, video, electronic components, on view January 17 - February 28, 2015, at Bert Green Fine Art, Suite 620, 8 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: An overview of Christopher Ottinger's "There is something within me that might be illusion," 2014-2015, wood, enamel, lab stands, glass, copper, video, electronic components, on view January 17 - February 28, 2015, at Bert Green Fine Art, Suite 620, 8 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above:
Images (1-3) January 23, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos