Mar 31st 2017

this land is your land

@ Chiacgo Artists Coalition

217 N Carpenter St., Chicago, IL 60607

Opening Friday, March 31st, from 6PM - 9PM

On view through Thursday, April 20th

The Chicago Artists Coalition is pleased to present “this land is your land,” a HATCH Projects exhibition featuring work by Azadeh Gholizadeh, Frances Lightbound, and Verónica Casado Hernández, and is curated by Ariel Gentalen.

“this land is your land” is an exhibition featuring three international artists investigating the invisible forces at play in our built environment. The American musician Woody Guthrie composed the famous, eponymous folk song as an alternative national anthem, one that sings the praises of a migrant traveler, whom can freely survey the beauty of the United States. Whereas Guthrie captured a populist postwar America that was open and progressive to him, these artists use their practices to explore the imagery and philosophy that attempt to keep us apart.

With insidious nationalism on the rise, the themes within these three bodies of work are highlighted in an urgent, more pressing tone. Azadeh Gholizadeh examines the man-made borders and stigma between the US and Iran, while Frances Lightbound tackles the visual language of infrastructure and development. Both artists look at how bodily autonomy is slowly stripped from us the more cognizant we become of the regulations within the Western world. Verónica Casado Hernández blends performance and textile-based work to address the feminized idealization of Lady Liberty, born from the Enlightenment and molded into a righteous figure, while posing questions about the ways the virtues of consent of the governed become twisted out of our reach.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

ARTIST BIOS

Verónica Casado Hernández is a pastist, as opposed to futurist. She uses history to practice trans-temporal drag and explore narratives of power and rebellion related to women’s social identity. Verónica is a Chicago-based visual artist and cultural historian. She earned her MFA in the Low Residency program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has exhibited her work and lectured in the USA and Europe.

Azadeh Gholizadeh is a Chicago-based artist and architect. Born in Tehran, Iran, Gholizadeh received her BA in architecture from Shahid Behest University (SBU), MA in architecture from Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) in 2009, and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012. Her work questions the ways she can transform her discomfort of border crossing and lack of geographical identity into a tool to attain intellectual freedom and a broader understanding of culture, identity, and home.

Frances Lightbound is an interdisciplinary artist who splits her time between Chicago, IL and Glasgow, Scotland. She gained an MFA in Printmedia from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, during which she received a 2015-2016 EAGER Grant for Topographies of Defense, a collaborative research project examining defensive architecture and urban design in Chicago. She also has a BA (Hons) in Painting and Printmaking from the Glasgow School of Art (2012). Lightbound was a founding member of the Scottish artist collective, 2|1|4|1, and is a current participant of UChicago Arts’ Field Trip / Field Notes / Field Guide Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited in the US and UK.

CURATOR BIO

Ariel Gentalen is an educator, curator, and arts organizer seeking to diversify narratives and create platforms for engaging critical dialogue among artists, artwork, and audiences. They are currently the Residency Coordinator at the Hyde Park Art Center and the Conference Manager at Third Coast International Audio Festival. They received their BA in Art History and Women’s Studies from California State University, Fullerton and their MA in Arts Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: , , , , , , ,