DEFIBRILLATOR GALLERY, DESIGN CLOUD,
IN>TIME PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL,
& THE SCHOOL of the ART INSTITUTE of CHICAGO
present performance art by

LEE WEN (Singapore) and CHAW EI THEIN (Burma/Myanmar)

Curated by Joseph Ravens, Mark Jeffery, and Nora Taylor.

The event is FREE WITH RSVP or $5 at the door
https://dclovesperformanceart.eventbrite.com/

Lee Wen | Singapore (b. 1957) is an internationally renowned artist. Best known for his traveling performance series starting in 1992, “Journey of Yellow Man,” where he covered his body in yellow pigment to express his ethnic identity as an Asian, his work explores everyday realities through the use of metaphor, blog, poetry and song. He is a member of the Artist’s Village, an experimental independent art space and community founded by Tang Da Wu (b.1949) as well as the sole Asian member of the performance collective Black Market International. Lee Wen will be performing, “Re- Imagined Self through living and dying.”

Chaw Ei Thein | Burma/Myanmar (b. 1969) is an acclaimed artist and activist from Myanmar (Burma.) Currently in political exile in New York, she was educated in Yangon (Rangoon). She studied art at an early age under the mentorship of her father, painter Maung Maung Thein. Trained as a painter, her work grew pluridisciplinary and conceptual over time. In 2008, she was invited to participate in the Singapore Biennale and 2009, received an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship and residency in New York.

Committed to presenting a vast range of styles and forms of time-based art, DEFIBRILLATOR (a.k.a. dfb or DFBRL8R) is a non-profit 501c3 arts organization dedicated to fostering local talent while invigorating the Chicago art community with artists from around the globe. Contextualizing performance within visual art, dfb embraces action-based or conceptual work by artists who look to the body, objects, space, and time for inspiration, research and practice.

Design Cloud is a destination for art and design and a center for artistic exploration and development. They are dedicated to providing support and exposure for emerging and under- represented artists, curators and designers. With a focus on interdisciplinarity and artistic discourse, Design Cloud provides unique opportunities for artistic growth through a variety of initiatives, including curatorial programming, events, and workshops.

IN>TIME performance art festival is organized by artist, curator and SAIC Performance faculty member Mark Jeffery and includes performance art, video screenings, lectures, and symposia that investigate intersections of body, text, object, sound, and technology.

Nora Taylor is an educator currently teaching at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a scholar specializing in Southeast Asian experimental art and performance. The recent recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, she will be looking at performance art practices in Singapore, Vietnam, and Burma as a strategy for survival, not a reaction against mainstream art practices but rather, the only medium possible in environments that are hostile to contemporary art.

SPONSORS: Design Cloud; SAIC departments of Art History, Theory, and Criticism | Performance | Contemporary Practices | and the Dean’s Office +1 Grant; Singapore National Arts Council; and Asian Arts Council. Defibrillator is partially supported by grants from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Illinois Arts Council Agency, and The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

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Tags: Chaw Ei Thein, Design Cloud, In>Time, Lee Wen, performance art