Reference Rot
@ Chicago Artists Coalition
217 N Carpenter St, Chicago IL
Opening Friday, May 29th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Wednesday, June 17th
The artists featured in HATCH Projects exhibition, Reference Rot all share a penchant toward the informational, the didactic, and the moralizing – traits normally spurned in the mainstream contemporary art world.
Like Hansel and Gretel attempting to re-trace their steps only to find their bread crumbs gobbled up, artists Rachel E. Foster, Maya Mackrandilal, and Ryan Thompson have done exhaustive research in the process of their projects, but their sources may not be evident in the final product. While audiences often times implore artists to reveal more information about their sources, the artists in Reference Rot embrace the fractured, disconnected relationship between the originating information and the mutated product.
Rachel E. Foster shows a suite of archival prints drawn from her personal collection of items that together compose an idiosyncratic treatise on the difficulties of communication. Maya Mackrandilal presents large photographic collages that document herself performing as incarnated Hindu goddesses, who, in an attempt to navigate the monstrosity of the modern world, challenge white supremacy through the emasculation of white male bodies. Ryan Thompson uses several media to investigate the curious character of Marcel Vogel, a successful IBM research scientist who turned his attention from magnetic disks to another type of storage system – quartz crystals.
The title, Reference Rot, refers to a situation online when a cited link exists but content on that page has changed or the information referenced is no longer present. The three exhibiting artists are all engaged in practices that play with history and attribution. Their work maintains a strong connection to their researched sources but specifics of the information have been drawn out, stretched, and transformed through their artistic interventions.
Reference Rot is curated by Jaxon Pallas.
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Tags: Chicago Artists' Coalition, Jaxon Pallas, Maya Mackrandilal, Rachel E. Foster, Ryan Thompsons, West Loop
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