May 2002, 5 posts, 223 lines
FORMFIT An Exhibition of Works from the MFA Program School of Art and Design / University of Illinois at Chicago
With: Tricia Moreau Sweeney Georgina Valverde Duke & Battersby Brandon Larson Mequitta Ahuja Kajsa Dahlberg Kathy Richland Dani Leventhal Shane Huffman Jaime Mendoza Melanie Schiff Scott Wolniak Deva Maitland David Lozano Arri Goggins Nely Jiminez William Staples Cassy Smith Robin Hann Sophia Chai Jack Sloss Jee-Eun Kim
Reception Saturday, May 11, 7 - 10pm Drinks * DJ * Dancing
Hours: Friday, May 10, 10am - 6pm Saturday, May 11, 10am - 10pm Sunday, May 12, 10am - 2pm May 13 - 18 by appointment (call 312/996-6114)
The Great Space Fifth Floor Art and Design Hall 400 S. Peoria Street Chicago, IL
FabulAss Productions, which consist of SAIC graduating Photo students, is having a group show at Selooto Lounge 622 N. Fairbanks (at Ontario) May 11th and 12th from 6-10pm. The show will consist of Photography, video, sculpture, and painting. Wine will be provided.
Contact: fabulassproductions at hotmail.com
Othergroup:
What I am of course writing to report on is the show that I urged all of you with an interest in vital contemporary art to see a couple months back. No silly, not Gary Simmons at the MCA or Jeff Carter at Vedanta or Robert Heinecken's exhibit of art by Ed Keinholz at Bodybuilder. What I am writing to you about is the one-night-only Motorhead retrospective that happened at the House of Blues last Wednesday.
Now first of all, I was very disappointed by the poor showing made by the Chicago art world in general, and the people on Othergroup in particular. Pedro Velez has a valid excuse because he was out of town. Nato Thompson lives in North Adams, Mass so I knew he couldn't be there. Dan S. Wang recently got a haircut so he might have been afraid of being publicly humiliated at an event where cutting your long hair off would be frowned upon (I'm bald so it's not my fault that I can't grow hair down to my ass like the guys in Morbid Angel). I understand Alan Ravitz's position clearly enough now to know that he probably has aesthetic differences with Motorhead's art so that's okay too. Not everyone has the same taste. Fair enough.
But the rest of you - what is your excuse?! I can only imagine the rain must have caused a few of you to forgo using the tickets that you purchased back when they first went on sale a couple months ago. Perhaps some of you didn't want to patronize a cheezy corporate venue like the House of Blues. That, I definitely understand. Still, at this packed show, the art world was nowhere to be found. Where was Keri Butler - perhaps dressed in her finest Manowar shirt? Where was Cindy Loehr for this Collective Experience? Where were the Law Office guys - two of whom claim to have painted a portrait of Slayer's Tom Araya in their new show, yet they miss Motorhead?! What kind of poseurs are you? Where was Michael Bulka - who is almost as old as Lemmy? In fact, the only person representing Chicago Art aside from my cohort and I, appeared to be a quiet woman who used to sell tickets and check coats at the Art Institute. Perhaps this is a class issue?
You people really let me down. More importantly, you let Motorhead down.
And what did you miss? You missed all the classics, performed with the precision, volume, and power that have earned Lemmy and Motorhead the sterling reputation that they have effortlessly defended for well over 25 years now (30 years if you want to include Hawkwind - and you should include them for the years that Lemmy was in that band). They played
If some of you had attended and deliberately arrived too late to see Morbid Angel, I would have spared you this indictment. I know that even in our post-post-post-ironic times, the complete and utter lack of humor that Morbid Angel expressed when they played "Blaspheming the Holy Ghost" was still something most people are not ready for. I myself, found the purity and viking-like earnest approach of their aesthetic to be a little too scary to be funny (or perhaps, a little too funny to be scary). Fair enough.
Anyway, it is safe to assume that Motorhead will be back in a year or so. Assuming my faith in art and artists isn't totally destroyed by then, I'll be giving you plenty of advance notice to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
Marc
P.S. If there was one particularly precise parallel between a Motorhead show and any other formal art event, it is that in both situations, you would definitely be in the extreme minority if you weren't wearing black.
P.P.S. Next critical art event in Chicago for 2002: Electric Wizard at the Note (!) in late June.
On Sat, 11 May 2002, Marc Fischer wrote:
..... am writing to you about is the one-night-only Motorhead retrospective hat happened at the House of Blues last Wednesday.
Motorhead? when did anyone post notice of this? Is my topica stuff being dumped again? /jno
Now that I suckered you all in...
This is to invite you to the Lamprey Pig Roast this Sunday June 2. Food. Live bands. Live Michael Bulka. BYOB 2025 South Halsted
Halsted & Canalport in fashionable Pilsen enter the yard through the alley on Canalport anytime after 2 pm