In what is perhaps a cautionary tale, Alison Carey makes dioramas of future landscapes; populates them with organisms, made out of “flesh-like” materials, that have evolved from humanly engineered life-forms, which have taken over the earth; and shoots the set-ups in color. From the perspective of our species, the creatures that have issued from our experiments and have displaced us are not particularly attractive—sinuous, wormlike beings that are hybrids of plants and body parts, and have decidedly raw and sensuous associations. Although Carey assures us that they are “benign, ” she is “unsettled ” by the prospect of fabricated life reproducing itself with abandon. True, her organisms do not seem to have any culture and simply grow and sprawl without any discernible purpose; but that appears to be the case with all the world ’s present denizens, except ourselves. Carey ’s creatures are more like gummy-worm mushrooms than anything else; the idiotic self-delusional and self-destructive human race could have done worse in pushing itself off the stage. (Michael Weinstein)
Through February 24 at the International Museum Of Surgical Science, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive
Related Stories
The Craft of Reparations: DePaul Art Museum Connects Local and International State Violence “Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture, and Reparations | Chicago to Guantánamo” at the DePaul Art Museum examines the question of reparations by tackling two cases: the well-documented tragedy of Chicago police torture and the ongoing international scandal of Guantánamo Bay.
All Too Real: A Review of “Not All Realisms” at The Smart Museum In the compelling exhibition currently on display at the Smart Museum, photographs tell the story of the sixties in Africa. It was a decade of change, resistance, revolution and hard-won independence in many African countries.
A Legacy Captured: A Review of Rosalie Favell at the Block Museum In this exhibition, Métis artist Rosalie Favell shows over one hundred portraits of indigenous artists, musicians, arts educators and writers she’s met on her travels and during her residency in Evanston, drawing out her subjects’ inner spirit animals.
RECOMMENDED
