The Arts Club of Chicago at 100

The Arts Club of Chicago at 100 was our first commissioned exhibition that really exemplifies the multi-faceted nature of our studio practice. We exist in the porous grey matter between “art” and “design”. Initially conceived by the Club as a “design” problem to solve, namely a graphic timeline showcasing their eclectic past, through good faith and close collaboration with director Janine Mileaf, the resulting exhibition and print collateral offer more than just a “pearl necklace” of milestones. With blessing of the curator, we were able to superimpose our own vision of the their impressive history through the creation of a series of six screen prints, each showcasing a particular era. Each era-focused print was built based on historical and intuitive responses to print collaterals held in the Arts Club’s archives. Exhibition announcements, correspondence, catalogs and post cards were devoured and then re-contextualized to form a new picture altogether. In addition to the prints, simple one-color reproductions of the source material were showcased throughout the exhibit, creating a mental map of past and presents that simultaneously unlocked and complicated the Club’s disparate history. The center piece of the exhibit, a ziggurat-inspired plinth built and concepted in collaboration with Gabriel Hargrove, housed a takeaway publication titled Enactment, a 7” flexi record that condenses two historic lectures presented at the Arts Club of Chicago by luminaries Gertrude Stein and Jean Dubuffet, and reconstitutes them as a club-ready deep house cut.