Michael Workman

This gives a whole new meaning to the idea of a "Royal We." Two people, one name. While the image may conjure a gum-snapping pair of blondes who finish each other's sentences, CarianaCarianne is out to treat the mind-body problem from an entirely different angle. Influenced by Deleuze and Guattari's description of a "body without organs," CarianaCarianne interrogates notions of the modern self as divided and representative of psychological polarities readily available in society (just think of the red and green states and you'll get the basic idea). Her strategy of illustrating the intrinsic connection of seeming opposites borrows curiously from sixties popular acceptance of equality movements and the often garish performance art they engendered.

CarianaCarianne had her name legally changed to reflect her artistic interest, and for her 12 x 12 opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art, will simultaneously sign as both individuals a last will and testament. How? She'll perform a small ambidextrous feat, using one hand to sign as Cariana and the other as Carianne. Besides performance, CarianaCarianne's past work also included video and installation, with her choice of materials decidedly transient, using duct tape and cardboard. After the exhibit opens, she'll spend every day from 11am to 1pm rearranging objects in the space and "adding text to the installation."

Five-Minute Interview: Sonia Yoon

Newcity: You were approached by curators Kathryn Hixson and Sandra Dillon to include your art project, your I.D. Incorporated, in "The New Collusion" show. What is I.D. Incorporated?

Sonia Yoon: I started I.D. Incorporated two years ago while in graduate school, working with a bunch of different groups of mostly art-oriented people, networking and bartering services with each other. It's gone in and out of dormancy depending on everybody involved. Over the past nine months or so I've been setting up new affiliates. Affiliates are groups of people that I have creative relationships with: acquaintances, artist's projects or businesses. Right now, I have eleven or twelve affiliates. They sign on to having an official relationship with I.D. Incorporated, we talk about how we can collaborate or what kind of needs they have that I can provide for them. The most immediate resource I can offer is publicity. Usually I approach people who are starting up a new project and through conversation I get to know these people a bit better, and new resources and new skills get added to the list. Maybe they have website skills, grant-writing skills or so on and so forth. Everyone kind of grows together then in this network.

Newcity: You're kind of taking professionalism as your artistic subject.

Yoon: You pretty much have it there. When I first started the project, a lot of what I was dealing with was negotiating my own artistic studio practice; who I was, what was my medium. Before I was looking at myself in a social context, interacting with people and that's what translated into this professionalism. I created this hybrid out of my administrative background and my studio, performative background. It's sort of a fake business, one that I've dealt with in a critical way. I've dealt with it as a response to my involvement with art markets, with which I was really uncomfortable. My work doesn't fit comfortably in a typical gallery situation either, but I also feel that I'm really uncomfortable having these genuine interactions translated or contextualized by a commercial setting.

Newcity: But isn't that exactly what you've done? Made the artistic contingent on these professional interactions?

Yoon: Yes. I still feel really uncomfortable. In that sense, under the theme of "The New Collusion" show, it fits in very well. It's a practice more than an art project. I find a lot of problems with presenting it as an art piece: it's being housed in this art context alongside painting, sculpture and so forth. In some sense it's about the broad range of activities going on in the show that deal with appropriation, so my project will fit in. Personally though, I prefer this be an ongoing project, a living activity rather than something that has to be represented to people all the time.

Newcity: So do you consider this an artistic practice?

Yoon: I actually do. It has to do with a lot of things that were playing out with my prior visual work. It's a logical place for me to be in in terms of my practice. It has to do with how I collaborate with people, with persona. For me, it's first of all research. I'm trying to redefine what an artistic practice can be, how I can express that to other people. I do try to avoid situations where money gets exchanged. It forces everybody to commit to a creative relationship.

Newcity: What about the performance with Pan-O-Matic?

Yoon: That's an event taking place on the night that the show opens in a lecture hall and I.D. Incorporated is collaborating with one of the affiliates, Pan-O-Matic, a research laboratory dedicated to exploring ideas about efficiency and technology. It's Stephanie Rothenberg, who's working out of New York now. We're developing a lecture/performance that has to do with a new product that Pan-O-Matic currently has in development, called a cyber diving rod. We'll go into some history about Pan-O-Matic and I.D. Incorporated, then discuss this idea of a cyber diving rod in a way that allows the audience to get involved in the project.

"12 x 12: New Artists/New Work: CarianaCarianne" shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue, (312)280-2660, through July 4. "The New Collusion" shows at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, (312)744-1424, through August 12.

(2004-06-02)

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Eye Exam
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Tip of the Week
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