Jason Foumberg

Recently an Oak Park middle school banned its students from hugging in the hallways, citing jammed byways and tardiness as an excuse to censor brotherly embraces. Similarly, Tino Seghal’s "Kiss," a performance piece for two actors sited midway through the MCA’s collection highlights exhibition, expresses how the building block of coupling is a beautiful thing, yet uncomfortably inappropriate when publicly displayed. Perhaps the best element of "Kiss" is not the work itself, but viewers’ reactions to it. The actors kiss, caress and grope each other, while standing and then grinding on the floors—all in slow motion, and almost blending into the crowd of museum visitors. In ten minutes I witnessed viewers try their hardest to ignore these pervs macking in a museum, others exasperated when the kissing got heavy enough to move to the floor, still others with hand covering agape mouth and trying to explain lust unencumbered to their children—it’s just that this performance seems so real, and the best part is: it is. Like the Jeff Wall nightclub photograph in the next room, "Kiss" balances realism with artifice, and voyeurs can gawk with the assurance that it’s alright because it’s art.

Tino Seghal’s "Kiss" shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art through December 30. (2007-10-09)

Also by Jason Foumberg

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Jimmy and Jill Baker's exhibition of partially imagined architectural elevations sited in Baghdad’s desert landscape—sleek, Modernist-style edifices and manicured lawns contrast with the blazing sun and Hussein-era public sculpture
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For years, almost a decade, the third-floor space at 1319 West Lake Street in the meatpacking district has been known as the Butcher Shop. Although no meat products have been butchered or sold here in recent memory, the name has served as a pseudo-secret alias (as perhaps more of an informed nod to the roots of the ‘hood than as a speakeasy) for parties of the art variety. More than just any party, the art party is a youth-cult utopia that seeks engagement and community on a foundation of creativity
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In April 2007’s Artforum, critic Brian Sholis wrote that Kevin Zucker, a New York City-based painter, had started to mature in his output. His paintings held more complexity than recent years, and thus Zucker had moved on from an art "that felt merely decorative." After reading this review, Chicago-based artists Marilyn and Peter Frank grew irritated by the insult inherent in Sholis’ phrase, "merely decorative." The Franks’ response is a work in neon script that mirrors the critical remark; it reads "merely decorative" and glows a clean white light
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The opening night of the Fall art season always feels slightly like a pre-Halloween trick-or-treating to various galleries. At each stop we cruise the art that, like a parade of costumes, are the distillation of either the current trends or the most retro nod to the past (ironic or otherwise), and as always the best costume contains the least clothes
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