SHOWS

Intimate and Epic, Small Acts for the City

Presented by Great Performers of Illinois

Saturday, September 09
11:00 AM — 5:00 PM
Other
FREE

From 11a.m. - 5p.m. seven project-based performances took place simultaneously at the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, Chicago. Illinois-based performance and movement artists collaborate with visual artists to create performances that engage the Lurie Garden’s sculpturally dynamic design, the intimacy of its interior spaces, its social and public function, and the spectacular backdrop of the Chicago skyline.

Curators: Mark Jeffery, faculty at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and member of Goat Island Performance Group; Sara Schnadt, performance artist and Webmaster for Chicago Artists Resource (a project of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs).

PROJECTS
Blitz by 3 card molly (Ania Greiner and Liz Winfield) and Michael Rea
Every hour in the half hour from 11:30a.m. – 4:30p.m. for 40 minutes
3 card molly attempts to colonize the Lurie Garden in Blitz, using a large wooden military tank and various instruments of calibration, transplantation and examination. Performance by 3 card molly and sculpture by Michael Rea. Starting with the idea that the native plant life of the garden is re-colonizing the urban space, 3 card molly explore methods of claiming territory.

Dinosaur Tracks and Translations by Andrea Buckvold and Christopher Wildrick
Performance will take place continuously from 11a.m.- 5p.m.
Dinosaur Tracks and Translations is a human-scale, all-ages game of multi-player hopscotch, where you choose one of four sets of stylized dinosaur tracks and “follow in its footsteps” across the board.  The public can interact with this piece by playing hopscotch with the artists and the life-sized tracks of dinosaurs.

PDA by Jennifer Allen and Sara Ross
11a.m. - 1:30p.m., 2:30p.m. - 5p.m.
PDA is a performance work that uses the everyday actions of human intimacy and affection to explore the nuances of Public Displays of Affection. Cinematic props, ‘hyper-realistic’ movement vocabulary and ‘official’ park signage unravel the histories of who, how and when affections are displayed in public park settings. PDA involves 18 dancers in a five-hour cyclical performance that roves among the entrances and benches of the Lurie Garden. Watch for these performers throughout the park. They may initially seem to blend in, and so will perhaps make you see everyone else in the park slightly differently as well.

WaterEdge by The Seldoms and Pate Conaway
Every hour in the hour from 11a.m. – 5p.m. for 20 minutes
The Seldoms present a modern-day ‘tableaux vivant’ in the Lurie Garden’s water feature. Honoring the former edge of Lake Michigan’s lakefront, WaterEdge moves in and out of the garden’s water feature, constructing an inventive pageant and requiem to shifting shorelines. The artists create a living sculpture that compliments the gestural qualities of the garden’s design and evokes its place in the history of the city’s shoreline. Choreography and direction: Carrie Hanson, Doug Stapleton Performers: Christina Gonzalez-Gillett, Jen Grisham, Amanda McAlister, Bruce Ortiz, Cara Sabin Sculptures: Pate Conaway

Untitled by Stan Shellabarger
Performance will take place continuously from 12p.m. - 5p.m.
Shellabarger activates the perimeter of the Lurie Garden from noon to 5 p.m. by repeatedly walking its circumference and leaving a transitory water path.For 5 hours the artist carries a water tank on his back and leaves a trail of water behind him that slowly evaporates as he walks.

Light Curve by Cupola Bobber (Stephen Fiehn and Tyler Myers) and Leslie Mutchler
2p.m. - (approx) 3p.m.
Contemplating distance, scale, and the temporal poetry of imagined space, Light Curve translates hundreds of miles of railroad into the rolling landscape of the flowerbed. The performers place a forced-perspective railroad track in the garden and wear star hats. The railroad track appears at a certain angle to extend forever, crossing the garden as continent. A smaller skyline installed in front of the track further distorts our sense of scale. This illusion plays off of the trickery of perspective, the assumed perspective of the stars looking down, the geometry of the garden’s design, and its relationship to the city behind it.

Manual Labor by Industry of the Ordinary (Adam Brooks and Mat Wilson)
4:30p.m until the ice melts
Industry of the Ordinary fill work gloves with water and freeze them. Embedded in the ice are the names of workers who broke ground and worked on the Lurie Garden project. The resulting ice forms are allowed to melt into the garden, leaving in place the worker’s identifying tags. Duration lasts until ice is completely melted. The artists place ice forms that mark the contributions of the many workers who created the Lurie Garden throughout the plant beds as a final gesture of the day.