Those with a taste for post-apocalyptic landscapes and lovers of our sweet home will find no better treat upon which to feast their eyes than this show containing thirty-three lucid yet dreamy, light-rose-brown albumen-silver prints shot and developed by an unknown and keenly sensitive photographer a month after the devastating Chicago fire of 1871. The ruins of breweries, gas works, churches, palatial homes, stores and all other edifices that grace a great modern city are placed before us shot with an eye attuned to the conventions of the travel photographers of the time who captured the monumental remains of ancient civilizations with a sense of lost magnificence. We have all heard about the fire, but here we are given a glimpse of the shell of a vibrant city that existed before the one in which we now live. Be prepared to experience deep meditative sentiments of haunting beauty that the artists of another age—continuous with yet incredibly distant from ours—knew how to evoke. (Michael Weinstein)
Through August 23 at City Gallery, in the Water Tower, 806 N. Michigan.
Related Stories
Historic Perspectives: A Review of Chris Kleihege and Eric Holubow at Gallery 1871 Holubow celebrates the beauty of buildings falling into disrepair and eventual demise while Kleihege chose monuments—fitting, as many monuments are being questioned. Kleihege unwittingly erased or partially obliterated the monuments by using burned film.
The Fire Right Now: Gary Simmons Fights the Power with "Public Enemy" at the MCA Since the late 1980s Simmons has played a key role in situating questions of race, class and identity at the center of contemporary art discourse. Drawing heavily on popular genres such as hip-hop, cult horror, cartoons and science fiction, he exposes and analyzes histories of racism deeply rooted in the U.S. visual culture. Sports, cinema, literature, music, architecture and urbanism—nothing…
RECOMMENDED
