The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present “Consider a Disappearance,” an exhibition by Chicago-based artist and experimental filmmaker Ruby Que

(link is external). “Consider a Disappearance” will open on Monday, Feb. 12 and run through Thursday, March 7. An opening reception will be held at the gallery from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15.

“Consider a Disappearance” is presented in partnership with ACRE, an artist-run non-profit based in Chicago that is devoted to providing resources to emerging artists and nurturing a diverse community of cultural producers. ACRE’s programs support this generative community with materials, equipment, expertise and opportunities to exhibit and share work.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the UIS Visual Arts Gallery will host a closing performance by Que from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 7. All events are free and open to the public.

Que is inspired by the work of artist Bas Jan Ader, who disappeared at sea while completing his project “In Search of the Miraculous.”

“I obsessively watched and rewatched his video works, which often involved him leaving frame, becoming hidden and disappearing,” they said.

In an article for the Brooklyn Rail, Ader’s wife wrote, “I’ve never totally given up hoping that he will one day come back.”

“This struck me,” Que said. “I’m thinking about the histories and reverberations of a disappearance: the longing, searching, never finding and sitting with. I’m thinking about figures such as Ader, Connie Converse and Amelia Earhart, but also our obsession with them– more precisely, finding them.

“I’m thinking about the people that have been forced to disappear or into hiding in my distant home, Hong Kong, and the possibility of disappearance or invisibility as resistance.”

Que is an installation artist and experimental filmmaker who occasionally writes, sculpts and performs. In their work, they open portals and create hauntings. Que’s films and installations have been shown at Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago; Comfort Station, Chicago; Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York; and Du Vert à L’infini, Franche Comte, France. They have been awarded residencies including Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont; ACRE, Steuben, Wisconsin; Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Rockland, Maine; and are currently a HATCH resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition. They were named a 2023 Breakout Artist by Newcity Magazine.

Que grew up in Hong Kong in the lingering shadow of colonialism, and now lives and works on the unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, or what is known as Chicago. They earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree in fine art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

This project is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Springfield Area Arts Council. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is centrally located on the UIS campus in the Health and Sciences Building, room 201 (HSB 201). Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. For more information and future exhibitions, visit the UIS Visual Arts Gallery website.

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