June 1–July 31, 2020
The Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago is pleased to present Another Idea: an actual conceptual art exhibition.
Artists: Zarouhie Abdalian, Carris Adams, Victor Burgin, Julia Eckhardt, Chelsea A. Flowers, Theaster Gates, Liam Gillick, Renée Green, Susan Hiller, Kyle Bellucci Johanson, Gloria Maximo, Devin T. Mays, Antoni Miralda, Pope.L, Cauleen Smith, Mami Takahashi, Philip von Zweck, Gillian Wearing, and Nate Young.
Please enter the exhibition here: https://graycenter.uchicago.edu/projects/another-idea
Before the global pandemic broke out, it seemed for a brief moment that we might be on the verge of bidding adieu to the internet, that we once again might be social without the help of digital media, that we might be able to kick our screen addiction. But all that changed with the arrival of COVID 19 and the need (and compulsion) to spend more and more time connecting on-line resumed with urgency. In this rush to re-engage with each other on the internet, we were able to feel comforted from being in touch virtually, yet we have also registered the intense psychological strain of augmenting our quarantined existence with the virtual. What’s more, this virtual space has already been monopolized by large tele-media corporations from Google to YouTube to Zoom and back again. What recourse does art have in such a hyper-mediated and corporatized environment? The legacy of Conceptual Art seems to offer one possibility. Another Idea proposes not a virtual exhibition but an actual conceptual art exhibition.
Rather than approaching this exhibition as a virtual version of something that might otherwise live offline, Another Idea is devised specifically to question the relationship between the space an artwork occupies and what form(s) that artwork might take; i.e. conceptual art. We have our minds on early Conceptualist and Fluxus practices as well as those of artists from ensuing generations whose work begs the question: if not solely within a singular resulting output, then where is the work? Although much of this work can and does take a form, the connection between the final result and intent of the work remains malleable.
Are photos or videos of an action the actual work, or is it the thing that happened and could happen again? Is a sculpture the work or is it the people that engage with it over time? We might suggest that we all know the answer is yes, of course, so what this exhibition seeks to do is illuminate, emphasize and/or introduce particular ways of considering the roles of context, site, time and material through the specific works of each artist and the structure(s) of the exhibition.
The exhibition is headquartered on the Gray Center website while supporting the exhibition’s fluctuating presence on other platforms. The works in Another Idea also lives wherever they are experienced: they can be printed at home, performed in the street, spoken in the dark, watched on screens, listened to on headsets, installed in a park, or thought about in the bath.
Conceived and organized by Zachary Cahill and Mike Schuh
Also, join us for Gray Sound Sessions, our online bi-weekly experimental sound and music series at the Gray Center.
About the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry
The Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry is a forum at the University of Chicago for experimental collaborations between artists and scholars. Gray Center activities take place all over campus (encompassing various divisions, departments, and programs), across the community, throughout the city, and beyond. Through its various programs—including the Mellon Residential Fellowships for Arts Practice and Scholarship, exploratory research initiatives, the monthly Sidebar conversation series, Gray Sound, an experimental music and sound performance series, international conferences, and institutional collaborations—the Gray Center seeks to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation at the intersection of arts practice and scholarship.
Press contact
Mike Schuh, Gray Center Assistant Director of Fellowships and Operations, at mikes1@uchicago.edu.
