Located in the AIC's shnazzy new modern wing, "On the Scene" is a photography-based exhibition including work by Jason Lazarus, Wolfgang Plöger, and, my hometown favorite, Zoe Strauss. As much as I wanted Zoe to blow the rest out of the water (funny pun considering the focal point of her work--see below), I have to say Lazarus' collection of found snapshots stole the show. Lazarus conceals all visual content, displaying the backs of photographs to reveal handwritten captions and descriptions scrawled by the anonymous owners of each photo. The result is a kind of reverse picture book; snippets of text describe the images that are frustratingly present yet unavailable to the viewer, who is left to conjure the image on his or her own. In addition to the evident text, residue from adhesives and scrapbooks litter the photos' backs, making each a formal, compositional exploration.
Meanwhile, Strauss' piece exhibits the raw, confrontational, unapologetic quality that makes her work so compelling. Well known in Philly, her work is an exercise in visual, urban ethnography, as she immerses herself in her surroundings, engaging with and showing great 
compassion to her subjects. Strauss has a strong formalist sensibility defined by careful compositions and confrontational, unforgiving portraits of anonymous people. I first encountered her work in one of her annual installations under I-95 in Philadelphia, in which her photographs were mounted directly onto the beams holding up the highway. At the end of the exhibition, viewers were invited to remove the images from the wall to keep. As a result, I am the owner of two stunning photographs by Strauss and count her as part of my very small beginner art collection.Anyway, I really wanted to love her work in "On the Scene" entitled "Week of the Perfect Game." AIC invited Strauss to engage with the city for one week in July and develop a visual story--she chose the end of July, the week during which White Sox picture Mark Buehrle pitched a perfect game, hence the piece's title. Strauss captured the area south of Chicago's loop to Gary, Indiana, exploring the region's defining political, social, and popular issues: the grief surrounding the death of Gary, IN native Michael Jackson (which struck me as akin to Warhol's fascination wit
h the death of Marylin Monroe); the pedestal on which the city held the Obama family in the aftermath of the election; the hope for the Olympic bid; the hotel workers strike; the mourning of a teen killed by gun-fire; and the reaction to the perfect ball game. While each individual photograph exhibited the compositional 
qualities I love in her work,the overall product of her exploration seemed too sparse--there just wasn't enough work. I expected a more in depth visual story to emerge from Strauss' week-long journey; instead, the few mementos left over created a disjointed story that barely seemed to scratch the surface of the compelling issues circulating in the area at the time of her visit. The photographs actually feel like an afterthought to the more impressive translucent photograph of Lake Michigan that masks a full wall of windows, acting as a kind of theatrical backdrop against which her photographic story unfolds.Strauss is giving a talk at the AIC on 11/12, 6-7 p.m. Maybe her thoughts will help me out, as I really want to love the work as much as I love the artist.
PS Strauss has an awesome blog from which I swiped the featured images.
I had much the same reaction after seeing the show, Liz. I liked the concept of Strauss' piece, but left feeling like there were too many holes. No real narrative emerged from the pieces for me. Let me know how the talk goes. Hope it does fill some things in.
ReplyDeleteJason Lazarus rocks! His story is really interesting too. He actually was a student at the Hyde Park Art Center and developed his professional portfolio in the Art Center's classes before moving on to work professionally as an artist.