When the Sky is Full of 0’s and 1’s
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Chicago is a messed up place and likes to blast fireworks on the 3rd instead of the 4th of July. No big deal though since yesterday was the nicer day. Kirstie and I decided to take a bike ride down to the Art Institute of Chicago which marks the farthest south we have biked. Of course, it was during the Taste which means there were tons of ppl just randomly walking around. And remember fireworks, which meant many ppl with coolers, chairs, screaming kids clogging up the rest of the spaces. It was a challenge to maneuver, and then a challenge to find a space to lock up. We opted out of the bike-parking for the the taste becuase it looked really crowded and so we biked down a few more blocks. Crossing the street into the Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain we biked through more ppl and found a line of trees next to the rose garden to lock up. Conveintly we were by the part of the taste were Zam Zam, an indian restraunt/shop on devon, had a both set up. We decided combined with 2 rainbow cones, which we promised ouselves for the ride home, we could get a pakora and a jalebi (chickpea flour dessert deep-fried in spirals). This would be exactly 22 tickets, perfect. The pakora was excellent, with both the sauces on it but the jalebi was a bit to sweet for my taste. We ate these on our way to the art gallery which was only about 1 block north of were we parked.

At the Art Institute we immediately headed for the photography room. Down there we saw 2 very interesting displays, one by Abelardo Morell and one by Edmund Teske. Teske’s photographs were very intersting and errie. He used solarization and duotone, a process he somewhat developed in which you experiment with chemicals during development to alter the printed image. He also did some amazing mutliple exposures on the same developing paper. Considering most of the photographs were from the 30-50’s it was even more interesting. The photographs of Abelardo Morell were more recent (within the last 5 years) but equally as stunning. He took the idea of a camera obsucra and used it to make really interesting landscape pictures. Most of the pictures were of rooms in which the image coming through the hole was a landmark (the arches of St Loius, the NYC skyline) which made images very simliar to the multiple exposures of Teske but with more life to them. For the images to develop on the film he had to take very long exposures (up near 8 hrs) so the images in the room are very crisp while the image coming from the outside is bright enough to see. The way the projected images intereact with the room is very cool. As if they are growing on the walls and the peices of furniture

After that we quickly went to the modern art section and took in the art of Magnus von Plessen. In one word it is impossible to capture all that I felt when we walked into that room. You think that after going to art gallery’s for many years I wouldnt be taken aback so with a new artist. He is definetly someone I will look for more often, since he is epressive, and creative and new. You can see influences of Rauschenberg, and Polke with

After that we were in art overload, a quick peak at my favorite artist, Clyfford Still and then off to get that rainbow cone.

The walk back through the Taste was equally as difficult as before, if not more so. Kirstie lead us right to the booth and the ice cream was every bit as good as I remember as last year. We made it back to our bikes and finished our cones. Hopped back on our bikes for another run through the madness that is the bike path down near navy pier and biked up to the lakeview hood. Checked into Reckless Records for the new Doleful Lions release (which they still dont have stocked but I was able to find a used promo copy in the recent arrivals) and then dinner outside at Leona’s. By this time it was getting so that we had just enough time to make it back to our area to sit on the beach for the fire works. Unfortunatly we didnt really get far enough south and the fireworks looked really small, but it was nice after the long day of biking around town to sit on a blanket with Kirstie and just relax.