CURATED BY ERIC RUSCHMAN
MATT MORRIS
“Since I began working with perfume in my practice, I have been trying to understand the space between beauty as a historical question of aesthetics and beauty as a multi-billion dollar global industry in order to examine the understructures that support the powers to represent in every political sense. With these soft pastel drawings, I’m contemplating cosmetics, beauty moguls like Madam C.J. Walker and Rihanna, and legendary drag queens like DiDa Ritz, Heidi N Closet, and Dorian Corey. I’m drawing this powder puff pinup figure again and again while I remain ambivalent toward the compulsory interpellations of the consumer and the latent pleasures of performing as an object”
Above: Powder Puff Pinup, 12” x 9”, Chalk pastel on paper, 12” x 9”, 2020 (each)
VAGINAL DAVIS
“I grew up in inner city L.A. I’m not middle class. I have a slight disdain for the wealthy but you can’t help that when you grow up poor. I always have this underlying urge to ‘kill the rich’, but I do it on stage instead. If you choose to work with me you have to know where I’m from. I’m a sweetheart, I’ll give you my last pantyhose, or the bra off my back, but I can get down and I can throw down.”
Above (L to R):
Jane Avril, 9” x 6”, Glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, coconut oil, perfume, watercolor pencil, eye shadow, rouge, foundation, nail enamel, lacquer, polish, Datura, Hamamelis Wasser, Mandrake, Henbane, hairspray, and Iberogast on found paper, 2018
Two Mary Wigmans, 5 3/4” x 4”, Glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, coconut oil, perfume, watercolor pencil, eye shadow, rouge, foundation, nail enamel, lacquer, polish, Datura, Hamamelis Wasser, Mandrake, Henbane, hairspray, and Iberogast on found paper, 2018
The Book of Dahma and Nisma, 8 1/5” x 5 4/5”, Watercolor pencil, nail varnish, lip stain, eye shadow, glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, witch hazel, coconut oil, cocoa butter, perfume, hairspray, Anacin Fast Pain Relief Tablets, Excedrin Migraine & Headache Tablets, Lydia E. Punkham Women's Compound and Health Tonic, 2018
“Dub: Finding Ceremony" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, as read to me by Catalina Ouyang over the phone on 4/11/2020
ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS
reading from her book "M Archive"
CATALINA OUYANG
fish mystery in the shift horizon, 2019
Documentation of durational performance
LED headlamps, artist’s translations of Cai Yan's "胡笳十八拍” written in the spirit of Yu Xuanji, appropriations of poems by Yu Xuanji, cited texts
“Sometime in early April I was talking with my friend Tenaya on the phone and feeling anxious/low, and they offered to read to me from “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler, which they had just started; but a few paragraphs in, they realized they didn’t like reading aloud so I offered to take over from the book I was reading, Dub. I found the task relaxing, a way to slow down my own racing thoughts and entreat myself to hear this amazing rhythmic prose aloud, which I hardly ever do otherwise (without an audience). I so enjoyed it that I made an Instagram story offering to read for 30 minutes to anyone who asked, friend or stranger, which I’ve since been doing once or twice a week. There is something really lovely and intimate about sharing this phone time, without frills, introductions, or small talk, with a person receiving my voice, delivering someone else’s words, at the other end.”
Weekly Floral Service from Field & Florist with curbside drop-off during Covid-19. Run by Heidi Joynt and Molly Kobelt, seasonal blooms researched heavily over the winter months, grown on F&F's farm in SW Michigan, and delivered to quarantined residents of Chicago when we need to be reminded of what outside is. The best bouquet design around, and truly the only blooms I know that, when they are at the end of their lifespan, drop fully from the stems and burst into small piles of petal confetti on the floor.
SUSAN PASOWICZ
“I usually draw houses, people, curly top, trees, clouds, the future, I like watercolors, portals and rainbows. I think about things in my head and as it comes into my head then I draw it on a piece of paper. I go to art talks to learn about other pictures if it is good or bad. I like seeing exhibitions so I can learn from other people’s artwork. I like when there are a lot of people at openings and they are interested in buying the paintings. I like to socialize with more people. I like painting, I like that it is colorful, more joyful, like. I don’t copy off other things, I always draw out of my head, even as kid.”
Above L to R:
Dreamer Inside the Square, 12” x 12”, Colored pencil on paper, 2018
Magic Frame, 14” x 17”, Colored pencil on paper, 2019
Professional, 9” x 12”, Colored pencil on paper, 2019
MADELEINE FINLEY
“This series of drawings began as a way to explore something new in my practice, while safely staying home and self-isolating. The drawings are done slowly, and are a sort of meditative escape that helps me process these strange times. Each one is whimsical, floating, and dream-like, with specific spots of color emphasizing a host of suggested narratives.”
Above (L to R):
Floating Off the Dust, 17” x 14”, Charcoal, graphite, and pastel on Bristol, 2020
Fortify These Walls, 17” x 14”, Charcoal, graphite, and pastel on Bristol, 2020
From The Road, 17” x 14”, Charcoal, graphite, and pastel on Bristol, 2020
The ERTÉ COURVOISIER COGNAC collection was created in 1988 by one of the great masters of Art Deco and fashion illustration, Erté (aka Romain de Tirtoff). The bottle shape was designed by Erté and each unique illustration represents a different stage in the cognac-making process. The contents are a blend of rare Grande Champagne cognacs, some from the 19th century.
LOUIS WAIN
“He has made the cat his own. He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves.” - H.G. Wells
Above (L to R):
Spill vase in the form of a cat, 6” x 2” x 5”, Ceramic and glaze, circa 1914
The Lucky Master Cat, 8” x 4” x 4”, Ceramic and glaze, 1914
Lucky, 6” x 3 1/2” x 5”, Ceramic and glaze, 1914
Black Hammer is a comic book written by JEFF LEMIRE. For the first few story arcs, it chronicles the mystery of why (and how) a set of former superheroes have been stranded on a farm from which they cannot escape. They oscillate between attempts to escape the farm in order to get back to the city (Spiral City, to be specific), and resignation that their lives in isolation are actually for the best, and that if they return to the city, it would mean the city's destruction. Sound familiar? CLICK HERE TO READ EXCERPTS.
ANN CRAVEN
Above (L to R):
Cats in Shelter (Walnut, May 02, 2020), 17” x 14”, Graphite on paper, 2020
Cats in Shelter (Frick & Frac, May 02, 2020), 17” x 14”, Graphite on paper, 2020
Cats in Shelter (Lena, Again, May 02, 2020), 17” x 14”, Soft pastel on paper, 2020