With Charles E. Roberts III “Work days -for work, holidays -for sorcery” in the Milwaukee Ave. Window Gallery

For Total Information Objects, Colin Matthes’ work includes home defense paintings, instructional drawings, and decoys for home décor. These works aim to solve, create, or poke at looming environmental, domestic, and cultural problems. The father of two young kids, Matthes is occupying an increasingly isolated space and letting anxiousness and humor guide his making. Works in this exhibition deal with launching nukes, riding horses, truth, productivity, and fucking ticks.

For Total Information Objects, Christopher Smith designed workstations inspired by office supplies, shipping/receiving facilities, and experiments in the field of chronobiology. These experiments involve isolating a human test subject deep in a cave away from any sense of time (sunlight, moonlight, clocks, etc). These hybrid workstations become backgrounds for digital labor, a type of labor that extends beyond human circadian time, and collapses administration with production, management, and public relations.

Colin Matthes, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, grew up in a village with three bars, a post office, and the world’s greatest junk parade. Installing electric at small-town county fairs, wiring trailer parks, and the photocopy machine formed the way he makes things and views the world. Solo exhibitions include Bockley Gallery (Minneapolis), INOVA (Milwaukee), and HetBos (Antwerp), with group exhibitions at Mulherin and Munch Gallery (NYC), The Queens Museum, The Science Gallery at Trinity College and the Royal Hibernian Academy (Dublin), the Charles Allis Museum and the Haggerty Museum (Milwaukee), the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Quebec City Biennial, the Biennial of Graphic Arts (Ljubljana), and Monash University (Melbourne). Residencies include Hotel Pupik (Austria), Werkkamp (Belgium), and Cow House Studios (Ireland).

From 2008–15 Christopher Smith organized exhibitions in a vacant lot, a fire pit, and a medicine cabinet. His work has been presented at Mesa Projects (Portland), Shoot the Lobster (NYC), The Franklin, Antena, Slow, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He received his MFA from Northwestern University.

“Work days -for work, holidays -for sorcery”

The title of this piece was found in the subtitles of Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors during a recent viewing. It seemed to perfectly encapsulate my approach to creating this installation. As a departure from several ongoing projects this piece casts a series of spells with a hybrid of decorative symbologies and re-imagined folk traditions.

Charles Roberts is an interdisciplinary artist working and living in Chicago, IL. Primarily through video, photography, installation and sculpture he conjures intimate encounters from the theatrical and fantastic.

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Tags: Charles E. Roberts III., Chicago, Christopher Smith, Colin Matthes, Roots & Culture, Total Information Objects, West Town, Work days -for work holidays -for sorcery