2nd Floor Rear, a DIY festival of art in alternative spaces, continues all month long at the Hairpin Arts Center!

Mariel Harari and Christopher Allman present encore performances of their Ritural Performances. Both Harari and Allman utilize detailed costumes, ritual objects, elaborate installation and audience participation.

Flesh Deity
Mariel Harari
Flesh Deity is a ceremony dedicated to the fictional flesh deity. Visitors are invited to participate with no prior knowledge of who the flesh deity is or what she stands for. Upon entering the space, each visitor is given a necklace. They move around the bright blue floors, between patches of grass. They see visceral red decorations on the walls. They can see that the necklace they wear is made of the same material as the deity, and the grass, and the wall pieces. In the center of the room the flesh deity appears to be a stationary blob, made of shiny vinyl stuffed with yarn, until they approach it, and it moves. Flesh Deity aims to explore how the imposed connection to one’s environment and fellow visitors, created by the context of ritual, affects their experience.

Channeling Future Spirits
Christopher Allman
Dressed in shamanic costume, facilitated by masked dancers and drummers, we will perform a ritual meant to channel future spirits. Audience members will be invited (though not obliged) to participate in the spirit channeling. Those who wish may also engage with peripheral ritual objects that will exist as part of the surrounding altar piece.

About the Artists
Mariel Harari:

Mariel Harari is a multimedia artist working in installation, fiber, video, sculpture and photography. She utilizes bright and tactile materials reminiscent of childhood. Harari employs playful splendor as a lure. Harari juxtaposes chaos and structure, best exemplified by her technique of encasing tangled heaps of yarn in neatly sewn pockets of shiny, clear, vinyl. She blends autobiographical and fantastical narratives to explore the relationship between societal constructs of identity and uninhibited experience.

Harari earned her Bachelors of Science in Studio Art at Skidmore College, where she received the Marguerita Mergentime Award in Fiber Art. Her work has been exhibited at venues including A.I.R Gallery and has been reviewed in publications including Brooklyn Magazine. Harari has been awarded residencies at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and Vermont Studio Center. She was born in Brooklyn, NY and currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.

http://www.marielharari.com/

Christopher Allman:

Having been raised a devout Mormon who subsequently lost his faith and super interested in Sci-Fi, I explore themes of futurism, ritual and fringe spirituality through my Sci-Fi cult, The People of Ieya.

Although based on fiction, The People of Ieya is a sincere interest in and exploration of ritual, belief, futurism, in the form of performance, installation etc. I use a “cult” as the medium.

I am particularly Interested the intersections of of art and ancient spirituality, Shamanism in particular. Using these ancient techniques I explore the contemporary ideologies of Transhumanism and the Singularity. Using the tools of shamanistic expression, costume, rhythm, ritual, dance, sculpture, figurine, I channel the future’s spirit, the co-evolution of human and machine, this increasingly powerful, mysterious force which rules and shapes our lives, Sci-fi Shamanism.

https://peopleofieya.com/

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: 2nd Floor Rear, Channeling Future Spirits, Chicago, Christopher Allman, Flesh Deity, Hairpin arts center, Logan Square, Mariel Harari