Chicago Artist Zachary Cahill's 'USSA 2012' Project Continues At The MCA This April
By Julia Weeman in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 23, 2014 8:00PM
Zachary Cahill, The Future, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and USSA 2012.
This April, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: Zachary Cahill. This will be the third phase of Chicago-based artist Cahill's USSA 2012 project, which is an exploration of the societal roles that art and institutions play.
USSA 2012 began in 2011 at threewalls with the Orphanage Project, which examined the position of the ultimate "other" - an orphan severed from their roots, free to write their own narrative.
Of the exhibition, threewalls said:
Cahill's Orphans are models, 'modes of being' that The Orphanage Project wishes to make relatable through its study in human capital and the condition that awaits all. Cahill's attempt — whether a failure or temporarily on-hold — is documented through a series of sketches and a few published conversations.
The next iteration was the People's Palace Gift Shop, a site specific installation at the Chicago Cultural Center where Cahill combined actual tourist memorabilia with his own simulated gift objects. All of the items, including the Soviet symbol and sports mascots, were thematically related to the bear.
The third phase is titled Snow and is an installation divided into three sections of the USSA 2012: Wellness Center, a retreat created within the museum. Visitors are invited into a welcome center, library, and art gallery.
The exhibition considers "the costs and benefits of withdrawing from society in response to an individual or collective trauma, such as the recent global economic recession," according to a press release by the MCA.
The implications of art as therapy and a place of refuge are explored through Cahill's paintings, sculptures and writings and sources such as Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain and the Overlook Hotel from The Shining.
BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: Zachary Cahill opens April 29, 2014 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL.
Organized by the MCA's Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow Abigail Winograd, the exhibition is on view April 29, 2014 to September 16, 2014.