from Barrio

S. Prairie Ave in Bronzeville - photo by Micah Marty

I picked up this enormous book from the 6th floor of the Harold Washington Library last week called City 2000. There are a lot of photography books on that floor, the Social Science and History Division of the library, because obviously, photography sits on the fence between art and documentation: One man’s portrait is another man’s photojournalism… and it can often be the same man.

Anyway, this book is just what I’m interested in right now, Chicago-based photography. The strange thing about living in Chicago is that on a national scale Chicago seems to be ignored in a large part, overshadowed by N.Y. and L.A. and other smaller cities that have interesting scenes. The things that are distinctly Chicago in nature can often produce an aesthetic not unlike that of New York, especially in street photography and architectural photography. The two cities look a lot alike in the brick.

City 2000 was a project executed in the year 2000 (the year of all-Flash websites) to document Chicago at that point in history by some of its notable photographers. There are 199 photographs in the book by 39 photographers. There’s also text provided by 15 authors regarding the project and regarding the city. The corresponding archive on UIC’s library website includes work from over 200 photographers that participated in the project, including some audio and video files, that documents every neighborhood in Chicago in some way (use the search field to find places that interest you!). That’s where I was able to find a copy of this photo, which serves as a cover to the book.

I love this photo by Micah Marty, because it captures something I wanted to capture about the South Side of Chicago - those open spaces next to buildings that were clearly built for compact architecture. Three-flats like this are usually seen built into a neatly-packed row of three-flats with small gangways in between each building, and that kind of neighborhood justifies their narrow layouts and cramped bedrooms (that often barely fit a bed). But take away that context and you happen upon this stark scene — the drastic lines of the residence demand your attention, and you can’t help but kind of daydream about what goes on in the empty lot on the corner. Often there are foot paths carved into the grass that you can see from the elevated train, people wearing away the grass to make the walk around the corner less square.

Carl Heldmann talks with Lou Manfredini

Here’s the follow-up to my photo post about going with my dad to do a taping of HouseSmarts TV to talk about his book Be Your Own House Contractor. House Smarts has updated their website with the segment from my dad’s interview and it’s totally neat!

right to left: The "gloomily sooty" Monadnock building, the Fisher Building reflected, Metropolitan Correctional Facility

“Like the difference between Communion and communion, between obligatory ritual and the experience of oneness, there is a vast distinction: there’s standing in front of the Monadnock with Bach’s book, and then there’s coming up from the subway to find the Monadnock on your left, gloomily sooty and magnificent.”

Peter Bacon Hales in his introductory essay to Bob Thall’s The Perfect City

If you’re in the Chicago area this Sunday, please stop by 3039 West Carroll between 4 and 7 for the opening reception of Christopher Michlig’s  solo exhibition at Devening Projects + Editions.

Chris is my brother-in-law and has gotten really great press over the last year, including a review in Artforum. He will be at the reception, and he’s super nice and articulate about his work. So, go!

Here’s the gallery write-up:

devening projects + editions is pleased to present Christopher Michlig: MAN MAN MAN in his first solo exhibition in Chicago featuring new collages and a sculpture installation. Made from reconstituted fluorescent street posters whose advertised events have passed, the collages in MAN MAN MAN cut away all but one detail of the publicized occasion. The collages produce a constellation of fragmented information that oscillates between direct communication and abstraction. Whereas each individual poster previously conveyed concrete information relevant to a particular event, the new collages collectively insinuate a woolly, indefinite event.

Accompanying the collages is a group of sculptures that dissemble and reform the structures of public communication: kiosks, street signs, etc. Redacted panels atop active supports, toppled signposts, jumbled letterforms, and crumpled paper bases lay bare the potential of these forms to shift the function of language from the communicative to the poetic.

Christopher Michlig is based in Los Angeles and works in a variety media including video. Michlig was featured in the exhibition Half-Life, curated by Thomas Solomon at LACE and Yellow, curated by Lia Trinka-Browner at the Fellows of Contemporary Art in 2008. Michlig was recently part of group exhibitions at devening projects + editions, CSLA Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles and 1000 Eventi Gallery, Milan. Michlig’s solo debut at Jail Gallery, Los Angeles, was reviewed by Jan Tumlir in the May 2008 issue of ARTFORUM.