With a reverence for risky behavior, Fur Queen Catie Burrill and Leather King Samuel Schwindt create dangerous specters. In an epoch riddled with mixed signals of luxury and economic subterfuge, this exhibition reflects on the ethics of materials, real leather and faux fur, relating to the artists’ unique perspective on Chicago counterculture.

The exhibition delves into the intricate relationship between materiality and message. The artists utilize charged materials to remix stereotypical stories. Potential energy permeates the work in a state of “uncommitted crimes” as Theodore Adorno wrote in a rallying cry to artists who work against the status quo and celebrate rebellion.

Using versatile leather to craft/distill sculptures, Sam Schwindt concocts meditations on the ephemeral queer body, which is symbolically linked with the societal structure it inhabits. The patterns emerging from this union of skins showcase how the body exists simultaneously as a familiar entity and a distinct other, serving as both an object and a subject. Through the charged material and Chicago queer histories, Schwindt utilizes animal hides as a mutiny against traditional craft and lineages of sculpture.

Taught to sew before she could write, Catie Burrill uses salvaged materials to create monstrous-sized furred soft sculptures. Her work is inspired by a decade of wayfaring across the country in Greyhound buses, non-descript cargo vans and circus trains, fully embracing the unromantic side of American road and rail culture. Living amongst outsiders and choosing the slow route through life, Burrill’s experiences celebrate the beauty and challenges of divergent minds that move at their own pace. Her craft combines a lifetime of sewing techniques, from quilting to diy pattern making and upholstery, exploring the line between rags, riches and madness. Her creations explore themes of camp, folly, and world-building, infused with her own mythology.
Uncommitted Crimes opens the Friday after the presidential election, please join in on the celebration and/or devastation from the horrors of America at Parlour & Ramp, a former funeral parlor – built in 1914 – turned artist-run space. Evening-light crystal seeings by artist Dana Major ($10 cash for 5 minutes), a facilitated group scream at 8pm and 9pm with comedian Tatyana Scott, and DJ Toni aka Soft Swerve will be spinning seductive synths to the tune of a raging fire out back. Toss your conceptions of normality into the flames as we release into the night and summon the spirit of an uncommitted Chicago crime.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Catie Burrill, Chicago, Lower West Side, Parlour and Ramp, Samuel Schwindt, Uncommitted Crimes