Chicago Artists Coalition in partnership with the Fashion Outlets of Chicago are pleased to present Spooky Actions, curated by Sharmyn Cruz Rivera and featuring work by Sarah and Joseph Belknap.
Spooky Actions is an ode in three parts to the wonders and mys-teries of nature and the cosmos. In this work, we can imagine the birth of a rock; shining in polychromatic splendor, dripping with light, evoking the sublime and childlike marvel. These bulging sculptures protrude out from their display cases like they are alive and in movement, as if they could also be enlarged representations of particles moving in response to each other and their surroundings.
In fact, “spooky action at a distance” was what Albert Einstein called the phenomenon of two entangled particles communicating between each other and acting in relation to one an-other from considerable arbitrary distances. Sarah and Joseph Belknap’s otherworldly visual imagery is informed by amazing peculiarities such as this, an inspiration that lends itself to mate-rial experimentation and playful assemblage. Spooky Actions continues this path of making, offering the viewer an enigmatic science fiction, which like any good science fiction departs from humanity’s amazement when confronted with the idiosyncrasies and wonders the universe holds.
About THE COLLECTION: Where Art Meets Fashion
THE COLLECTION: Where Art Meets Fashion is a multifaceted art program by the Fashion Outlets of Chicago providing visitors with the opportunity to access and enjoy contemporary works of art by both emerging and established artists. The Fashion Outlets of Chicago hosts interactive works of art encouraging patron participation and student collaborations with Chicago’s acclaimed art education institutions, as well as a series of art-focused events and programming for its visitors to enjoy on a year-round basis.
Sarah Belknap (b. 1983) and Joseph Belknap (b. 1979) are Chicago-based interdisciplinary artists and educators who received their MFAs from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Working as a team since 2008, their art has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Columbus Museum of Art, The Arts Club of Chicago, the Chicago Artists’ Coalition, and Western Exhibitions and Comfort Station, as well as in artist-run exhibition spaces in Brooklyn, Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis. In addition, they have presented performances at institutions throughout Chicago, including the Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Links Hall, and the MCA.
Sharmyn Cruz Rivera is a Puerto Rican curator based in Chicago whose practice examines the intermedial qualities of sound art, contemporary dance, installation, and performance art. Her interest and research depart from meditations on human geography, radical manifestations of identity, and methodolo-gies of collaboration. She holds an MA in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a dual BA in Art History and Modern Languages from the University of Puerto Rico. Recent projects include La Vista: mamihlapinatapai at The Franklin and Between the Sky and the Earth at Roots and Culture. She was a 2015-2016 HATCH Projects Curatorial Resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition. She is also recipient of the 2017 Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation Curatorial Fellowship.
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