. Conversations at the Edge (CATE)

On Joan Jonas

We end our spring 2018 season with program featuring the work of prolific interdisciplinary artist Joan Jonas. Jonas is a pioneer of performance and video art whose career spans more than five decades. As one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jonas has pushed the boundaries […]

April 19 – An Evening with Joan Jonas

Among the most significant artists working today, Joan Jonas has a groundbreaking body of work that spans video, performance, dance, installation, and drawing to explore fundamental questions around visual perception, ritual, archetypes, and transmission of knowledge. Initially trained as a sculptor, she began experimenting with performance in the late 1960s, merging elements of contemporary dance, […]

On Ana Mendieta

This week, we are thrilled to present a selection of experimental short films by the late Cuban-born multidisciplinary artist Ana Mendieta. Born in Havana, Cuba, Ana Mendieta grew up amidst the political upheaval of Castro’s regime, fleeing to the United States with her older sister Raquelin in 1961. She would later go on to forge […]

November 9 – The Films of Ana Mendieta

The late Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta forged a radical practice that explored primal themes of displacement, the body, violence, and transformation. Known mostly for her earthworks, photographs, and performances, Mendieta also created numerous short films. With these works, she both captured her ephemeral performances and further transformed them through trick photography, staging, or video synthesis. […]

November 19-Claudia Hart: Simulisms

Thursday, November 19 | This week SAIC artist and faculty member Claudia Hart will join us for a live performance and a discussion!  Since the late 1980s, artist and SAIC faculty member Claudia Hart has used commercial CGI and 3D simulations technology to produce sensual and subversive works on identity, representation, and experience. In recent years she […]

On John Gerrard

This week in our SAIC Student Writing series Matthew Coleman (MA Art History 2015) blogs on John Gerrard’s large-scale digital works. He looks at the way Gerrard reveals the artificial natures of linear time and knowledge progression by bringing into question the provisional structures of power and networks of energy that facilitate our everyday existence. John […]

Mar 5 – John Gerrard: Networks and Power

Thursday, March 5th | John Gerrard in person! The works of John Gerrard (MFA 2000) often take shape as large-scale projections of meticulously crafted virtual worlds, astonishing in their scope and execution. Driven by sophisticated military modeling and video game software, they recreate the outposts of human industry—a 19th-century paper mill in Norway, mysterious roadways along China’s […]

October 9 – Andrew Lampert: Tables Turned

Thursday, October 9th | Andrew Lampert in person! Artist, archivist, and curator Andrew Lampert is known for his mischievous live media performances and hilarious short films and videos, many of which cheekily turn “cinema” on its head. Lampert uses improvisation, unusual projector placement, and sets of game-like instructions to explore (and exploit) the dynamic relationships between projector, […]

October 10 – Kurt Hentschläger

Thursday, October 10, 6pm | Kurt Hentschläger in person! An evening with Chicago-based Austrian artist (and SAIC visiting faculty) Kurt Hentschläger whose work explores human perception through intricate, multi-sensorial environments and live, audiovisual performances. Renowned for his immersive installations, the majority of Hentschläger’s works are generated or orchestrated by computer, employing atmospheric and drone soundscapes, figurative visuals, and […]

Sara Ludy: A Space In-Between

March 15, 6:00 p.m. | Sara Ludy in person Sara Ludy, Transom (2011). Courtesy the artist. The work of SAIC alumna Sara Ludy (BFA 2003) spans a wide variety of formats including photography, video, animated gifs, live performance, and large-scale installations. She explores the representation of domestic interiors, suburban architecture, and landscape design in virtual […]