Opening Reception featuring Doikayt Performance

דאָיִקייט – doikayt – “hereness”

Here and then exists simultaneously in the present as it is retold, rehearsed, reshaped. Through archiving Jewish folktales, studying incantation bowls and Jewish households from the Aramaic period to now, When Souls Stick collages and interprets Jewish history and mysticism to discuss the human impulse, throughout time, to imbue matter with souls and purposes.

The exhibition, corresponding performances and workshops explore how non-conscious objects come to life through mystical encounters, making bonds through human attachments.

In our tale, the Dybbuk (the vengeful ghost), Golem (the savior and destroyer), Ziz (sky and ruler of all birds) and Leviathan (the primordial sea monster) join in a familial affair, connected yet estranged, woven through the sharing of space. Through activated encounters, demons and angels appear.

The audience is asked to engage and move with the performers, following the Anti-Zionist diasporic concept of Doikayt, translated from Yiddish as “hereness.”

Jess Bass has exhibited at SPRING/BREAK Art Show (2020, 2022), PLAY/GROUND (2022), Hyde Park Art Center (2022), Terrain Biennial (2021), SITE Gallery (2020), and Detroit Art Week (2019); and featured in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, ArtNews, PASTE, Fader and MTV.

@partly_spring

Gabriel Chalfin-Piney has exhibited at Bird Show (2023), Speedwell Projects (2022), Buoy Gallery (2022), Chicago Artists Coalition (2021, 2020), Terrain Exhibitions (2020), High Concept Labs (2019), The Kleinert James Center for the Arts (2017), The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (2017); and featured in New City Magazine, Spaces Archive, and Chicago Reader.

@citrus.history

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When Souls Stick
Doikayt Performance
Performance by Zachary Nicol, Jasmine Lupe Mendoza Carrasco and Hannah Mira Friedland

Friday, September 1st
7:30 рm

The Dybbuk (of air), Golem (of earth), Ziz (of sky) and Leviathan (of sea) are woven in performance by Zachary Nicol, Jasmine Lupe Mendoza Carrasco and Hannah Mira Friedand, directed by Gabriel Chalfin-Piney. The audience is asked to move with the performers, following the Anti-Zionist diasporic concept of Doikayt (“hereness.”)

Zachary Nicol is an artist and performer based in Chicago. Their work uses research in dance, movement, site, and image to unfold problems of the performing body, and has been presented locally, nationally, and internationally.

Jasmine Lupe Mendoza Carrasco makes performance and organizes around abortion access in Chicago. Their work has been presented in Chicago, New Mexico, New Orleans, and LA, and they have held residences at the Banff Centre, Links Hall, The Arts Club of Chicago, ACRE, and MoMAZoZo.

Hannah Mira Friedland (she/her) is a freelance violist and fiddle player based in Chicago. Hannah Mira plays classical, traditional folk (primarily Klezmer and Celtic), and jazz styles for theater productions, weddings and other life cycle events, dances, synagogue services, and music workshops and has played violin and viola on album recordings and live performances around the world. Recent performances include original musical accompaniment for devised, interactive productions, Forbidden Fruits: A Purim Party at Berlin Nightclub and Festival of Latz at Hairpin Arts Center, string quartet accompaniment with Measuring Marigolds for Queer Music in the Archives at Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, a Klezmer and Simcha music concert at Pushcart Judaica’s Midwest Tour Chicago Pop-up, and a jazz string quartet performance at the New England Aquarium in Boston. Additionally, Hannah Mira can be found playing viola in the Evanston Symphony Orchestra and in an experimental music collective. Raised in a musical family, Hannah Mira earned her B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she studied music, geography, and religious studies.

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Tags: Chicago, Comfort Station Logan Square, Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, Hannah Mira Friedland, Jasmine Lupe Mendoza Carrasco, Jess Bass, Jess Bass & Gabriel Chalfin-Piney: When Souls Stick, Logan Square, The Dybbuk, Zachary Nicol