Sexual pleasure is ephemeral, but pillow talk, that post-coital act of tenderness, is infinitely fulfilled by the presence of another body. By showcasing three-dimensional and video works, Pillow Talk explores empathy through form, and the human being’s embodied response to images, objects, and spatial environments.

Empathy implies an optical experience in the whole body. Described by the philosopher Robert Vischer, empathy (or Einfühlung) articulates an attachment to the human body through visual response, and a simultaneous estrangement, as the spectator gives him or herself to another object or being.

Aesthetic pleasure, like sex, is an objectified self-enjoyment, a series of sensations rendered in the form of an object. Pillow Talk asks its audience to contemplate the body – textural surfaces, shivers, goose bumps, skin and bones – through clay, rubber, digital video, and illuminated fixture, among other things. The spectator, to paraphrase Vischer, may entrust her individual life to the lifeless form, just as he or she does with another person.

Pillow Talk, too, examines the internal dialogue that happens post-coitus; the whisper occurring as one turns inward for resolution of the physical act. Just as the works in this exhibition study form, they also observe the disembodied heart.

In a collaborative poem written with his lover Paul Verlaine, Sonnet du trou du cul, Arthur Rimbaud pens, “Jealous of literal intercourse, my soul/ Turns into a swamp of tears and a nest of sputtering sobs.”

The works in Pillow Talk, likewise, reiterate the dual notions of self-awareness and self-estrangement, a type of Brechtian experience that allows discomfort to be pleasurable in its own right.

Pillow Talk is organized by Stevie Greco and Natalie Schuh, and features work by Bridgette Buckley, Joe Cassan, Todd Mattei and Danielle Paz.

Bridgette Buckley received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002. She has exhibited widely in Chicago, most recently at Converso (in association with Balloon Contemporary), Connect, the Object Society, Marwen, and the Chicago Urban Art Society. Buckley’s work has been shown in Milwaukee, WI and Copenhagen Denmark; the artist has studied and lectured internationally, in Copenhagen; Helsinki, Finland; and Rome, Italy.

Joseph Cassan received his BFA from University of Illinois-Chicago in 2001. In 2010, Cassan’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition at Golden Gallery, Chicago. Recent group shows include Heads on Poles, Western Exhibitions; Kluster Crusts, Butcher Shop/Dogmatic; and Poetry: Literal Visual & Otherwise, Monique Meloche Gallery, all in Chicago.

Todd Mattei’s visual work (video, video installation, photography) has been screened and exhibited at places like the Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee; the Green Lantern, Nightingale, and Chicago Filmmakers in Chicago; ATA and Berkeley Film Archives in California; and Pittsburgh Filmmakers in Pittsburgh. Todd received his MFA in 2005 from the University of Illinois-Chicago, and has since taught film and animation at the University of Illinois and DePaul University. With musical groups Joan of Arc, Male, and Sharks and Seals, and alone as Litesalive, Mattei has contributed to almost twenty full length albums and toured the U.S., Japan, and Europe several times over.

Danielle Paz has exhibited in London, UK; The St. Louis, Missouri Artist’s Guild; DOVA Temporary, Reception Gallery, Heaven Gallery, and Lisa Boyle Gallery in Chicago. In 2009 Paz received the Ann Metzger Award for Prints. She is also currently working with Amor Pirata, a collaborative project that seeks to build connections with emerging artists from Havana, Cuba. Paz received her MFA from the University of Chicago and her BFA from Savannah College of Art Design.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Brigette Buckley, Danielle Paz, Joe Cassan, PEREGRINEPROGRAM, Todd Mattei