Last Minute Plans: See Jesus Mejia & Ruth At Triage Micro-Festival Tonight
By Julia Weeman in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 2, 2012 6:00PM
Acts Upon Us; a portrait of light and wind, 2011
Chicago-based artists Jesus Mejia and Karen Bovinich have been collaborating for over a year as Jesus Mejia & Ruth. They will be presenting new performance work tonight at Triage, a micro-festival in partnership with Rapid Pulse International Festival, curated by Happy Collaborationists.
Mejia and Bovinich create sculptural and performative work that "combines the precession of time, history and the mechanics of knowing." In an interview with Chicagoist, the artists talked about their work and The New Colossus, the piece which they will be performing tonight.
The pair aims to create work that "responds to the fact that people are there experiencing it," said Mejia. Bovinich shared that their work is "interested and responsive to what's happening" and that they address ideals in the light of individuals.
Their new performance piece The New Colossus is inspired in part by Emma Lazarus' sonnet of the same name, which is engraved on the Statue of Liberty. The sonnet refers to the Colossus of Rhodes, an intimidating statue that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Lazarus' sonnet "refutes the idea that the Statue of Liberty is intimidating or brazen as the Colossus of Rhodes was, and instead positions it as a welcoming beacon," said Mejia. Mejia and Bovinich spoke further about how the sonnet refers to the celebrated ideals of liberty and equality of men that arose out of the enlightenment movement.
Bovinich and Mejia's piece juxtaposes movement and arrest of the body. The wind represents the unattainable ideals this country was founded on and the "inherent disobedience that freedom requires," said Bovinich. For the piece, the artists constructed a wall with triangle braces and holes for their hands and arms.
The two will be in a bound position with copper wind chimes, positioned in a triangle, that hang ever so slightly out of reach of their hands. The use of copper is material reference to the Statue of Liberty, which is constructed of copper. The movement of people in and out of the gallery will create wind and movement in the chimes.
Unlike their arrested bodies, "wind and sound is unbounded," said Mejia of their thoughts behind the work. The artists also shared with us the intention behind using triangles. "Triangles represent power from the top down," said Bovinich. "Inverting the triangles signifies the inversion of that system and makes it more democratic."
Acts Upon Us, Bovinich and Mejia's piece at BUILT, was one of the highlights of the festival and we look forward to seeing the pair's new work tonight. The performance runs from 6-7 p.m. at Happy Collaborationists, located at 1254 N Noble.