Intermissions: Devin T. Mays
@ The Renaissance Society
5811 S Ellis Ave, Swift Hall, 4th Fl, Chicago, IL 60637
Opening Saturday, April 20th, at 6PM
On view through Sunday, April 21st
Connecting city landscapes, empty lots, and exhibition spaces in his work, Devin T. Mays conjures sculptures from found pieces of concrete or works with images or sound as different ways of embracing impermanence and in-between states. In Chicago and Houston, the two cities where he lives and works, Mays has also been developing improvisatory performances that are, in his own words, “part poem, part sculpture, part song.” The extended moments when he gathers an audience around him are continuous with the other aspects of his wide-ranging practice, in all its material and immaterial forms. For many of these occasions, he brings in musicians or other artists as collaborators, too.
At the Ren, Mays activates the large resonant gallery space for two nights with a new performance, Left, right, down, up. Sound, light, and language become central building blocks as Mays brings new elements into the space but also encounters what is already there. On each night, Mays sets things in motion in a different way. A performance can be a sensitive response to a room or a sudden vivifying of its surroundings. A performance can also be a kind of live description: the story of a space, through narrative or more roundabout means, starting from a score perhaps and then written in the present tense.
Curated by Karsten Lund with Michael Harrison.
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Tags: Chicago, Devin T. Mays, Hyde Park, Intermissions, Intermissions: Devin T. Mays, Karsten Lund, Michael Harrison, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago
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