CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Interactive art, installation work and sculpture are featured in two new exhibitions on view Sept. 5 through Oct. 4 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“Where Life is Better, Pat Badani” is the latest of a series of projects created by the artist, a professor of integrated media at Illinois State University, to explore “material and immaterial environments in which we live: the home, the city and virtual territories.” Among other elements, the multidimensional exhibition incorporates mutable texts and audio-video archives of more than 300 first-person reflections on theme of “home,” and invites viewers to add their own observations to a wall of graffiti. Gallery-goers also are invited to interact with dwelling-shaped objects to construct a personalized and democratic narrative on the topic of “a better life.”
“Mute/Mutations: The Bed Project and Other Recent Work, Therese Zemlin” includes sculpture and installation work, as well as a series of wall projections by the artist, an alumna of Illinois’ School of Art and Design. “The Bed Project” challenges the imagination with luminous, patterned shapes and images that inspire comfort or discomfort, depending on viewers’ perspectives. Also featured are the artist’s wall pieces, described by Deborah McLeod, director of exhibitions at the McLean (Virginia) Project for the Arts, as “peepholes into a realm beyond our daily consciousness.”
An opening reception for both exhibitions is scheduled to take place from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 5 at the gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago.
I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
