2130 W. Fulton St., Chicago, IL 60612
Wednesday-Thursday: 11AM-5PM
Friday-Saturday: by advance appointment
04.20
High Maintenance
Friday March 10, 6-9pm
Chloe Munkenbeck SUNGJAE LEE
Nicky Ni
High Maintenance wants to invite you to think about the hidden labor and tension around the ordeal of maintaining, an act of repetition and reverse-entropy that has been capitalized and also racialized in contemporary American society. Chloe Munkenbeck borrows from architectural elements that allude to the curtain walls of a glass building to highlight the level of maintenance--as well as the technological innovations put into it to realize self-maintenance--of modern high-rises. On the other hand, SUNGJAE LEE explores organization within messiness, intimacy within the abject, focusing on labor and work that are completed by the hands. Collecting and using hair from clients who attended his private haircut sessions, the artist will present a video installation that reflects on service industries, such as drycleaning and massage businesses, that are run by Asian Americans.
Chloe Munkenbeck is an artist and architect from London, UK. Currently based in Chicago, her work examines architectural structures as both metaphor and medium to unpack the social codes of conduct which the built environment dictates. In tandem with her artistic practice, Chloe works as a designer for architecture and design research office, Future Firm. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA in Architecture from the University of Edinburgh.
SUNGJAE LEE is a Seoul-born, Chicago-based artist. He makes performance, installation, text, and video focusing on queer Asians and their desires that have been regarded as effeminate, desexualized, and thus invisible in the West. He has presented his works globally in Korea, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. He received his B.F.A. in Sculpture from Seoul National University and M.F.A. in Performance Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Nicky Ni is a curator and writer, a Chinese expat living in Chicago. She's Programmer for Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival and Editor at Sixty Inches From Center.
About Curators
Nicky Ni is a curator and writer living in Chicago. She is currently the Development and Operations Assistant at the Arts Alliance Illinois. She has curated exhibitions or screenings at Conversations at the Edge, Mana Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Photography, 062 Gallery, among others. Additionally, she is co-founder of LITHIUM (2017-19), a Pilsen-based gallery dedicated to time-based art. LITHIUM then became TNL (aka. The Neu Lithium), an online editorial and curatorial platform for time-based and media art. Nicky has written for Newcity, Call for Curators, Chicago Artist Writers and Sixty Inches from Center. She graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University.
"Is It A Good Time?" was a 72-hour nonstop online screening that took place from March 5 to 7, 2021, featuring 33 artists from all over the world residing in the United States. Co-curated by Maryam Faridani and Nicky Ni, the exhibition aimed to address pertinent bio-political issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and to reflect on the prolonged period of time under the lockdown in 2020.
About Artists
Chloe Munkenbeck is an artist and architect from London, UK. Currently based in Chicago, her work examines architectural structures as both metaphor and medium to unpack the social codes of conduct which the built environment dictates.
In tandem with her artistic practice, Chloe works as a designer for architecture and design research office, Future Firm. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA in Architecture from the University of Edinburgh.
Image: Chloe Munkenbeck, Carnal Restraints: His&Hers
SUNGJAE LEE (He/they) is a Seoul-born, Chicago-based artist who makes performance, installation, text, and video. He received his B.F.A. in Sculpture from Seoul National University in 2014, during which time he discovered his deep interest in immaterial and time-based mediums.
To further develop his practice as a performance artist, he pursued his M.F.A. in Performance Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated in 2019. Throughout his residing in the States, his practice has centered on the need for visibility and representation of queer Asians in a Western context. His work has been presented globally in South Korea, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, and the US.
Image: SUNGJAE LEE, Temporal Chest Hair (thinking of Valie Export), 2019-2020, Durational performance (until donated hair fully covers artist's chest). Photo: Ji Yang.
