(Un)Avoidable Silence
@ Heaven Gallery
1550 N Milwaukee Ave, 2nd floor, Chicago, IL 60622
Opening Friday, September 6th, from 7PM - 11PM
On view through Sunday, October 20th
Displacement raptures one’s reality and creates a sense of discontinuity. This bottomless void is impossible to fill. No matter how hard one tries to assimilate, adapt to, or adopt the new life – something is still missing. You know you don’t belong. You don’t belong here, and you don’t belong there. The only place you belong is the gap you cannot fill. As a chronic disease, it never goes away, and you must learn how to live with it.
Some try to recreate their homeland in a new place and remain closely connected with other members of their diaspora, creating a quasi-word similar to virtual reality. You can notice that time never changes in such enclaves, it froze at the moment of their creation. Some imagine the old life has never happened to them – it was just a (bad) dream they woke up from. They build a wall around their past, discourage their children from speaking their language, and minimize all contact with people who share the same background. And a myriad of combinations in between – with the same goal to cope with the void that cannot be filled.
Being physically disconnected, first-generation immigrants rarely can break the mental and emotional bond with their homeland. The artists in the show came from different yet similar backgrounds. Both Iran and Russia are known as totalitarian states, both are coming through events that can potentially heal or break them forever. The magnitude of these movements shakes the very foundation of the new immigrant reality and builds up the pressure on its walls.
The show creates a space of silence, a soundproof refuge that allows time and place to process the emotional storm. It reflects the two aspects of this process: restless chaos and slow meditation. Motlagh creates space for contemplation and slowness, Sitnikov brings ruins of the past into the space to dissect and reassemble it.
Laleh Motlagh (Chicago) @lalehmotlagh
Anastasia Sitnikov (Chicago) @stacy_sitnikov
Official Website
More events on this date
Tags: (Un)Avoidable Silence, Anastasia Sitnikov, Chicago, Heaven Gallery, Laleh Motlagh, West Town
« previous event
next event »