Wayfinding
@ Heaven Gallery
1550 N Milwaukee Ave, Second Floor, Chicago, IL 60622
Opening Friday, July 14th, from 7PM - 11PM
On view through Thursday, July 27th
Wayfinding
Opening Friday 7/14, 7-11PM
On view July 14th – August 27th, 2023
Artists: Larsen Husby, Eileen Mueller
The world is full of sharp corners and straight lines which would have us believe in a narrow path. But we know that the map and the territory do not align neatly, so we look for covert signposts and forge our own paths where none yet exist. Like Hansel and Gretel we leave behind us markers, beacons, to guide those who might follow behind us — knowing that this trail might disappear as soon as it has been laid down.
Our work comes together around the act of wayfinding. Signposts, cairns, maps, smoke signals — the tools of orientation which speak to our constant seeking for some space we do not yet inhabit.
For Husby, that space is literal: the city of Chicago. Practically speaking, Chicago is a city in which it is hard to be lost. The streets are arranged in a massive grid oriented to the cardinal directions, and through the numbering system used on street signs and building addresses it is possible to identify nearly any location as a set of coordinates. But as Husby explores this geometry, the reliable pattern unravels. A perfect system is impossible in the material world; do we attempt to fix the cracks, or do we pry them further open and fall through?
For Mueller, the space she seeks to navigate is metaphysical, an existential wayfinding. How does one find their way to one’s self with no visible sign posts? Considering the emergent nature of the queer experience her work conjures a dyke mysticism by imaging an artifactual dyke iconagraphy. The work calls up histories of women’s land and the labor of building a self-sustaining community. Light both illuminates pathways and charges objects with the energy of carving one’s way onto the terrain as one feels their way towards unseen desire lines.
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Tags: Chicago, Eileen Mueller, Heaven Gallery, Larsen Husby, Wayfinding, West Town
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