CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -“Being Here,” Adam Pendleton’s upcoming four-day conceptual art installation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will, in a sense, be everywhere.
Much of the New York artist’s installation and commentary – and his audience’s physical and verbal response to the events – will be viewable on the World Wide Web, Oct. 10-13 (Sunday through Wednesday).
The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) is sponsoring Pendleton’s installation and visit.
The Oct. 10 installation will be done in private, but will be shown live on the Web. Portions of the installation and of follow-up events will be captured in still shots using SMIL, a technology for presenting synchronized multimedia on the Internet. All formats from the event will be offered on the IPRH Web site, and also will be linked from the U. of I. home page. All formats will be archived.
Pendleton’s canvas will be an entire wall in the Humanities Lecture Hall of the IPRH building, 805 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Urbana. The public is invited to view the artwork and to participate in its interactive elements from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 11 to 13 (Monday through Wednesday).
Widely regarded as a promising young artist, Pendleton recently was reviewed favorably in The New York Times; he is featured in the current issue of Artforum.
“Being Here,” a “monumental text work with an audio component addresses issues relating to the queer and African-American experiences and invites audience interaction,” said Chris Catanzarite, associate director of IPRH.
Against a bright yellow surface, Pendleton’s work combines passages from Reinaldo Arenas’ novel “Farewell to the Sea” with the artist’s own writing, “resulting in a rhythmic, stream-of-consciousness prose,” Catanzarite said. Audio tracks include Pendleton reading, and viewers are invited to respond by writing directly on the wall.
Pendleton’s “text-based work investigates the nature of location and transition, authorship and appropriation, identity and social space,” she said. The work is an expression of the artist’s personal life as it connects to contemporary prose and poetry.
Catanzarite also said that Pendleton is greatly interested in the visual manifestation of language whether it appears in graphic design, graffiti or conceptual art.
Free public events featuring responses to “Being Here” by U. of I. faculty members and discussions with the artist are scheduled each day of Pendleton’s visit. Events, all beginning at 4 p.m. in IPRH’s Humanities Lecture Hall, include:
Oct. 11, panel discussion on “Queer Art”; panelists: Stephanie Foote and Siobhan Somerville, English; and Sandra Soto, Latina/Latino Studies.
Oct. 12, panel discussion on “Black Art”; panelists: Audrey Petty, English; Nichole Rustin, Institute of Communications Research; and Susan Somers-Willett, English.
Oct. 13, lecture-performance on “Conceptual Art”; Pendleton; respondents: Lisa Dixon, theater; Kevin Hamilton, art and design; and Kathleen Harleman, Krannert Art Museum.
WILL-TV will carry the live Web cast and direct the Web production.
IPRH was established in 1997 to promote interdisciplinary study in the humanities, arts and social sciences. The program grants fellowships to faculty and graduate students and to external post-doctoral scholars who work in yearlong symposia on thematic topics. IPRH’s theme this year is “Difference.”
The program also hosts an annual conference featuring presentations by the IPRH fellows and invited speakers. It also provides financial support to faculty and graduate student reading groups, coordinates numerous lectures and panel discussions, sponsors exhibitions by campus and visiting artists and hosts a yearlong film series.
