Clara Rose Thornton

In the increasingly surreal modern world, there appear to be two constants: contradiction and counter-productivity. All references to governmental administration aside, these forces commonly present themselves--often joyfully hand-in-hand--in expert subtlety. Architecturally inspired installation artist Christine Tarkowski has envisioned a provocative way of harnessing this truth with "Imitatio Dei," her new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, showing as part of the "12 x 12: New Artists/New Work" series.

A Connecticut native, Tarkowski earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute in 1992 and has lived and worked in Chicago since. She creates exterior installations and "building wraps" that interact with preexisting urban structures and interior installations guided by spaces' structural components, popular use and inherent meaning. "I wanted to actually be part of environments that people use. That brought me to showing work to architects and installing it within architecture and thinking about the user of architecture as more of the client than the architecture itself," Tarkowski explains. This idea of habitation and usage directly informs "Imitatio Dei," Latin for "Imitating God." The piece is a large geodesic dome inspired by Buckminster Fuller's ideas of communal dwellings, composed of concrete triangles embedded with jagged colored glass and light bulbs, evoking the stained-glass windows of ecclesiastical yore. It is accompanied by a pamphlet of text, written by the artist, entitled "Fuel and Faith."

Herein lies the brilliance of Tarkowski's exposé of the glaring contradictions in our belief systems and daily practices, leading to an observed standstill in progressive thought. "A church is a piece of architecture, but it has a lot of symbolism," she says. "It's not just a place to inhabit; it's a place that embodies and symbolizes a particular ideology... So architecture is, not semiotic, but a symbol. Like most religious symbols or iconography it represents more than what you're actually seeing."

12 x 12: New Work/ New Artists: Christine Tarkowski shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue, (312)280-2660, through October 29.

(2006-10-10)

Also by Clara Rose Thornton

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