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Interactive art, installation, sculpture on view at I space
Melissa
Mitchell, News Bureau arts writer
217-333-5491; melissa@illinois.edu
9/2/2003
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
Interactive art, installation work and sculpture are featured in two
new exhibitions on view Sept. 5 through Oct. 4 at I
space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“Where Life is Better, Pat Badani” is the latest of a series
of projects created by the artist, a professor of integrated media at
Illinois State University, to explore “material and immaterial
environments in which we live: the home, the city and virtual territories.”
Among other elements, the multidimensional exhibition incorporates mutable
texts and audio-video archives of more than 300 first-person reflections
on theme of “home,” and invites viewers to add their own
observations to a wall of graffiti. Gallery-goers also are invited to
interact with dwelling-shaped objects to construct a personalized and
democratic narrative on the topic of “a better life.”
“Mute/Mutations: The Bed Project and Other Recent Work, Therese
Zemlin” includes sculpture and installation work, as well as a
series of wall projections by the artist, an alumna of Illinois’
School of Art and Design. “The Bed Project” challenges the
imagination with luminous, patterned shapes and images that inspire
comfort or discomfort, depending on viewers’ perspectives. Also
featured are the artist’s wall pieces, described by Deborah McLeod,
director of exhibitions at the McLean (Virginia) Project for the Arts,
as “peepholes into a realm beyond our daily consciousness.”
An opening reception for both exhibitions is scheduled to take place
from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 5 at the gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago.
I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
