Michael Workman

If walking and breathing can be thought of as an art, it's most commonly associated with the meditative practices of Buddhist and various martial arts, a way of tuning out all external sensory influences. But Chicago artist Stan Shellaberger borrows these disciplines for his show at the West Loop's Western Exhibitions gallery, for instance, by marking every breath he takes with a charcoal slash on twenty-six separate sheets of 18 x 24 paper. Shellabarger has also produced documentary photographs to display of his walking in a circle for twelve hours to mark the passing of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Such depths of concentration have often been demonstrated to produce startling results: cinderblocks split with a single blow from the hand or head, arrows snatched from midair. In Shellaberger's case, it's a slower, more deliberate process. How can the smooth back of a hand drawn across a wall, we may ask, abrade the surface to reveal the pink insulation foam-board behind? Do it for six hours at a stretch every Saturday for the duration of the exhibition, that's how.

It's a practice not unlike New York artist Kenneth Goldsmith's expansion of day-to-day experience, unraveling finite instances of time to fill whole books from a single day's issue of the New York Times, or every word he says in a single week. Goldsmith largely publishes the final results of his thought experiments in book form. Similarly, this show will also include books that "catalogue" the detritus of the artist's body, including images of toenail clippings and hair from his bathtub drain. Even his husband Dutes Miller gets into the act to contribute to Shellabarger's photos of three years worth of butter wrappers from the couple's meals.

Sound inspiration
As inspiration for Hyde Park Art Center's new exhibition "Of Change" by Richard Holland, the Chicago artist drew from the postindustrial rust belt of the Midwestern landscape. Holland has used tiny silver bells in past installations, but this one will have five times the number and, because of the time-intensity of their installation, may well prove to be his last use of them. Holland's installation will include recordings of a storm passing overhead, with rolling thunder and undulations of sheeting rain. His bells, appropriately, when seen from a distance, resemble raindrops falling over a constructed landscape of windmill sculptures, heavy shadows and light effects to conjure a rolling sea. When the speakers reach their peak intensity, the vibration will broadcast out through the room and ring the bells. Holland hopes that for viewers, the "uneasiness of the storm will be juxtaposed against the whimsical sounds of the bells."

Held in conjunction with the Outer Ear Festival of Sound, "Of Change" marks one in a series of events occurring throughout the month of November organized by the Experimental Sound Studio. It's a compelling lineup of sound installations, panel discussions and live performances with artists from a range of disciplines and backgrounds in venues ranging from the Adler Planetarium to the 3030 Cortland performance space. Broadcasts will also take place on WNUR and WLUW stations; dates, times locations are all available online at expsoundstudio.org.

Art Chicago update
Art-world watchers may have been a little stunned this week upon the arrival of a fax from Thomas Blackman and Associates announcing plans to stage the thirteenth annual installment of Art Chicago from April 28-May 2 in Butler Field in Grant Park. It's clearly an attempt to leverage some of the attention paid to Millennium Park and place the fair in proximity to the Art Institute, Chicago's most venerated art institution. But it's a move that TBA also argues will help it steer clear of the New York art auctions, a source of increasing consumer drain for fair planners. In 1993, when Art Chicago started out, the show was housed in a tent and TBA's counting on a return to its roots to kick-start attention to a Midwest art market.

Can that happen? Art Chicago's new dates are significant for the fact that the tenants who replaced TBA at Navy Pier's Festival Hall, Chicago Contemporary and Classic, run by Ohio-based firm Pfingsten Publishing, are holding to the traditional art-fair spot over Mother's Day weekend from May 6-9. For those mathematically challenged, that's two art fairs separated by a slim margin of only four days. Expecting 25,000 visitors, TBA's bid to undercut the Navy Pier fair runs the risk for both competitors of splitting audiences and diluting attendance. Meanwhile, fans of TBA's celebrated young art fair, the Stray Show, will simply have to wait. No news on its fate had been announced at press time.

Stan Shellaberger shows at Western Exhibitions, 1648 West Kinzie, (312)307-3685. Through December 18. Richard Holland shows at Hyde Park Art Center, 5307 South Hyde Park Boulevard, (773)324-5520. Through December 15.

(2004-11-17)

Also by Michael Workman

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The Barack and Alan Show
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