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7/5/2002

Catherine Sullivan

The Renaissance Society, Chicago

Although she has worked in a variety of media, Sullivan's primary focus has been creating original theater and video works that lay bare dramaturgical conventions and the mechanics of expression. Her true media are performers or agents of expression be they actors, dancers, or musicians. Sullivan refers to her performances as "second order drama.

They consist of re-staged moments of dramatic or performative tension taken from sources as disparate as Ted Nugent lyrics and Trisha Brown choreography. Five Economies (big hunt/little hunt) is a two part work whose main component, the Big Hunt, is a five part video projection (15 minutes running time). Screened along a single wall the length of the gallery, the silent, black and white footage consists of re-staged and choreographed scenarios based on a variety of sources including several popular films, including "The Miracle Worker", "Marat/Sade", "Persona", "Tim", and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" as well as imagined episodes from the true story of Birdie Jo Hoaks, a 25 year old woman who tried to cheat the welfare system by passing as an orphaned 13 year old boy.

The question relevant to all her staged performances is, how does expression work. How does a performer literally inhabit emotional memory? What are the formal characteristics that allow for the transmission of expressive or emotive content? But Sullivan is less interested in deconstructing theatrical conventions than she is reconfiguring codified forms of expression to explore, in her words, "the body's capacity for signification."

related events:

CONCERT
Frances-Marie Uitti, cellist
Wednesday, May 8, 8:00 pm

The Society is excited to host an encore performance by one of the most sought after talents in the world. Uitti has performed definitive interpretations of works by some of the late 20th century's greatest composers including Kurtag, Scelsi and Nono. In 1975, she developed a double-bow technique that transformed her cello into a truly polyphonic instrument capable of sustained chordal and intricate multivoiced writing. The bill features her own compositions which will incorporate the gallery's echo as raw acoustic material. This concert will take place in the gallery. FREE

CONCERT
Marc Unternaehrer, Tuba
with Ensemble Noamnesia

Tuesday, May 14, 8:00 pm

Tuba talent extraodinaire, Marc Unternaehrer comes to Chicago from Lucern. His repertoire of solo works for tuba includes compositions by Luigi Nono and Giacinto Scelsi among others. This concert will feature these as well as works for small chamber ensembles performed with members of Ensemble Noamnesia. This concert will take place in the gallery. FREE

PERFORMANCE
Lotta Melin, dancer/ choreographer
Terri Kapsalis, performer/ writer
Sunday, June 16, 5:00 pm

Melin's solo choreography and Kapsalis' wit and violin work make for performances that are lyrical and spikey, moving and humorous, but above all precise and intelligent. Lotta Melin currently resides in Stockholm. She is working as a choreographer for the German ensemble "Die Audiogruppe" and as an improvising dancer in collaboration with such artists as Sonic Youth, Mats Gustafsson, Barry Guy, Michael Zerang, and Leif Elggren. Chicago-based Terri Kapsalis is a founding member of Theater Oobleck. Her voice and improvised violin can be heard on CDs such as ìVanís Peppy Syncopatorsî with John Corbett and Hal Rammel and Lou Mallozzi's "Whole or By the Slice"(Penumbra), John Corbettís "I'm Sick About My Hat" and Sebi Tramontana's "Night People" (Atavistic), and Tony Conrad's "Slapping Pythagoras" (Table of the Elements). This concert will take place in the gallery. FREE

Image: Five Economies (big hunt/little hunt) Birdie Jo Hoaks/Helen and Annie style film still from five-channel video projection 2002

Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago
5811 S. Ellis Avenue Bergman Gallery, Cobb Hall 418 Chicago, Illinois 60637

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