Jordan Strafer: DECADENCE
@ The Renaissance Society
5811 S Ellis Ave, Cobb Hall, 4th Fl, Chicago, IL 60637
Opening Saturday, May 4th, at 4PM
On view through Sunday, July 7th
Please join us to celebrate the opening of Jordan Strafer’s solo exhibition DECADENCE. There will be an artist talk at 4pm in Swift Hall followed by refreshments in the gallery until 7pm. The gallery will be open from noon to 7pm.
The artist talk will take place in Swift Hall, the 3rd floor lecture room in the Divinity School building. The Divinity School is a one minute walk from Cobb Hall (the Renaissance Society is on the 4th floor of Cobb). Cobb Hall and the Divinity School are handicap accessible. The talk will be recorded, and live captioning will be available at the event. Please contact us if you need directions or accommodations.
Jordan Strafer is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York, whose primary medium is video. Her work revolves around stories of herself and her family, while also relating to a world that reflects the complex nature of racial identity, gender, sexuality, class, and “Americanism.” Situations that often seem absurd redirect the focus from the plot to our own way of seeing and—through their clearly staged and alienated form—allow a critical stance towards a society defined by questionable moral ideas and injustice.
For her exhibition at the Renaissance Society, the artist is producing the second chapter of a larger film project. LOOPHOLE, the first chapter, dealt with a romantic affair between a defense attorney and a juror during a nationally publicized rape trial in the United States in the 1990s. DECADENCE, the second chapter, is elliptical as it incorporates events from the night of the alleged rape, and the celebration after the acquittal. It encircles the events of LOOPHOLE like an embrace. Strafer depicts the loss of any structure and order and exposes the abuse of power, greed, and corruption that underlay the act of sexual violence. The film references the genre of the erotic thriller, which was popular at the time, and juxtaposes the deeply ambivalent feelings of fear and desire.
Curated by Myriam Ben Salah.
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Tags: Chicago, DECADENCE, Hyde Park, Jordan Strafer, Jordan Strafer: DECADENCE, Myriam Ben Salah, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago
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