Heartland at The Smart Museum of Art
by Jared Weiss
Being fairly new to town, I had not been to the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art. I decided to make the hour and a half trek from Andersonville to check out Heartland, a show examining art being generated at America’s interior and on view until January 17, 2010. What I left with was the impression of the rarefied voice of the Midwest.
Deb Sokolow "Dear Trusted"
This is a big show, comprising work from Carnal Torpor, Cody Critcheloe, Jeremiah Day, Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop, Design 99, Scott Hocking, Kerry James Marshall, Midwest Radical Cultural Corridor, Greely Myatt, Marjetica Potrc, Julika Rudelius, Artur Silva, Deb Sokolow, and Whoop Dee Doo. Taking up around half of the Smart Museum’s gallery space, the show features drawings, photographs, and video as well as site-specific installations and performances.
Greely Myatt "Cleave"
It appears as if the art of Heartland has a bent toward narrative. In an attempt to draw parallels between the work, a sense of story and linearity pervades. As an example, Deb Sokolow’s Dear Trusted Associate (2008–2009) is a large drawing that shapes up to be the story of a paranoid narrator who receives a scam email (you have just been named as the only relative of a dead billionaire). This turns out be less of a scam than anticipated, culminating in a (spoiler alert) murderous hit man, Richard Serra.
Design 99 "Machine"
There is a much needed reading/linear experience time from many of the works in Heartland. I didn’t get to them all and to be honest, you could spend quite some time doing so. Even the curatorial process became a story when curators, Charles Esche, Kerstin Niemann, and Stephanie Smith took a number of old fashioned road trips to find the artists for the exhibition. These trips were documented on their blog http://heartland.vanabbe.nl
Carnal Torpor & Cody Critcheloe
Writing this review I have the feeling that I’m leaving too much out. The truth is that this show is really a wealth of information that leaves much to be experienced. Middle America is somewhat stopped up, it doesn’t get to tell its story often and now it’s spewing its guts for the public.
