CAPACITY OF VOIDS is a presentation of works by Seth Sher and Michael Vallera. While in residence at ACRE, both maintained a daily regimen of documenting contingent landscapes through photography, using the specific environmental conditions of the region as a means to obscure perception. The primary source material was photographed at dawn, further ritualizing the process, while remaining detached from the social complex of the residency at large. However, what began as a joint investigation of the temporal body in the physical plane became a null pattern of waking, exploration, and introspection between two individuals. As a result, a project that was conceived to investigate a metaphysical relationship with the landscape became an experience of confrontation, repetition, and interpersonal isolation.

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SETH SHER is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist/composer from Chicago, Illinois. His projects typically involve the use of dense polyrhythmic structures. Recently, he has explored the use of these compositions in installation based works that include elements of video and light. While in residence at the 2012 ACRE session, Sher began his first use of still photography as an additional media in the context of his work. Capacity of Voids will be the first public display of this facet of his practice.

More information about Seth Sher can be found at http://soundcloud.com/akhkhazu.

MICHAEL VALLERA is a visual artist and musician currently based 
out of Chicago. He is one half of the duo Cleared (with 
Steven Hess) and has performed alongside such artists as David 
Daniell, Oren Ambarchi, and Rhys Chatham. His visual work primarily makes use of the photograph to explore relationships between formalism, personal narrative, and found structures in the landscape. He received his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the spring of 2010.

More information about Michael Vallera can be found at http://michaelvallera.com/.

THE PLAINES PROJECT, established in 2006, is a collectively run alternative space which seeks to provide artists, musicians and cultural organizers with a venue to exhibit, perform, and hold events that strengthen social bonds, nurture creative practices, and encourage important cultural and political conversations. It is the goal of the Plaines Project to accommodate Chicago’s creative communities by providing an open, safe, and supportive atmosphere that is constantly redefining itself in relation to those who utilize and occupy the space.

More information about The Plaines Project can be found at http://plainesproject.wordpress.com.

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibition) was founded in 2010 with the ambition to provide the arts community with an affordable, cooperative, and dialogue-oriented residency program. The residency itself takes place each summer in rural southwest Wisconsin and brings together artists from across disciplines and levels of experience to create a regenerative community of cultural producers. Over the course of the following year ACRE endeavors to further support its residents by providing venues for exhibitions, idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects.

More information about ACRE can be found at www.acreresidency.org

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Tags: East Pilsen, Michael Vallera, Pilsen, Plaines Project, Seth Sher