Death & Extinction Show: @ CAD: Review

The Show is now open by appointment only: Contact http://www.chicagoartdepartment.org/ for viewing details.

The End is Near at Polaroid Art Show: Review: The Chicagoist

The pay phone, the vinyl record, the VHS tape - all once cutting-edge technologies that have been upgraded and replaced. Such is the impending fate of Polaroid photography. To commemorate the demise of the snap and print pic, the Chicago Art Department plays host this month to a photography exhibit titled DEATH + EXTINCTION, which consists entirely of projects created in the Polaroid medium.
Six Chicago artists flew to New York City in June and joined up with six artists there to create their projects, each of which explores the theme of death/distinction through the Polaroid lens. These works, currently on display throughout August, take intriguingly different approaches to the idea of demise.
Some of the notable works include that of Andy “Sinboy” Luke, who takes the symbol of a rectangle with a line through it, which normally depicts a building or structure that will soon be knocked down, and applies it to unexpected environments. Anthony Vizzari gives old Polaroids a proper burial with epitaphs depicting the forgotten stories of “photographic orphans.” Most interesting is the work of the curators, KS Rives and Nicole Kenney, who have taken the idea of death and created a living work. These artists take Polaroid snapshots of everyday people stating what they wish to do before they die, then have their subjects write their desires in their own handwriting on the photo. Hundreds of these photos are on display at the exhibit, and can be eternally tracked at http://www.beforeidieiwantto.org/.
The photo is courtesy of the aforementioned website, and we think that’s a pretty solid goal.
DEATH + EXTINCTION, Now through Sept. 1, Chicago Art Department, 1837 S. HalstedChicago Arts District “Second Friday” opening will be held Aug. 8, 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Link to this article: http://chicagoist.com/2008/08/05/the_end_is_near_at_polaroid_art_sho.php

Also: From New City Magazine

Death + Distinction Via Poloroids
by Michael Weinstein

“Death" comes in myriad forms, as is made plain by the twelve photographers—six from Chicago and six from New York—who give us suites of Polaroid images in this tight conceptual show, inspired by the demise of instant-print technology. Among the memento mori here are Brett Ryan's decommissioned and derelict prison, Gina Mauro's relatives who have passed away and appropriated images dredged up from garage sales to which Anthony Vizzari has appended stories that he made up about their subjects, giving them lives they never had—perhaps the ultimate death. The most intriguing take on Thanatos is curators Nicole Kenney's and K.S. Rives' project of taking headshots of anyone they can seduce and having their prey write beneath their "portraits" their answers to the question: "What do you want to do before you die?" A study in democratic existentialism, Kenney's and Rives' ever-expanding grid is an acid test of authenticity that most of their subjects fail, with exceptions like the young man who writes, "I want to LIVE."

Original link: http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/8019.html

“Death + Distinction Via Poloroids” shows through August 31 at the Chicago Art Department, 1837 South Halsted, (312)226-8601. (2008-08-05)