RECOMMENDED In conjunction with the citywide “Festival of Maps,” Chicago-based artist Sarah Schnadt has transformed the 12×12 gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago into a literalized vision of an especially intangible technological development—the Internet. On one side of the gallery, Schnadt has installed a world map, and on the other, a more abstracted map composed of search terms grouped according to country. Throughout December, the artist will stage performances twice a week in which she literally connects various words to the countries where they were most popular as search parameters. In addition to Schnadt’s literalization, connections are complicated by the fact that they are created with materials traditionally associated with craft, such as yarn and wire. The translation from the alienated to the hands-on is made quite clearly—perhaps too overtly for some—but the resulting installation is interesting to examine in a number of terms, including the information it contains regarding the online activity of widely varying cultures. Additionally, the continual development of the piece invites the viewer to question the completeness of the work as it, like the Internet, is highly amorphous, shifting in response to the artist’s occasional presence and interaction. (Britany L. Salsbury) Through December 30 at Museum of Contemporary Art
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