Steve McQueen Exhibit

 Steve McQueen eponymous exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago is emblematic of his oeuvre; it’s dominated by visual images—often short films—reflecting his personal fascinations.

The first station one encounters at the exhibit is “Static.” From 2009, it’s a continuous projection of slightly over seven minutes in which McQueen circles the Statue of Liberty in a helicopter. The resulting short film shows the iconic figure from rarely-seen angles, like from behind “Lady Liberty,” and loud helicopter noises assault the ears, then fade into ghostly silence. The result is a new, unique perspective of a familiar landmark.

One of McQueen’s earliest works, “Bear,” is another continuous projection short film.

In 1993, McQueen completed the soundless, black-and-white, video, and he’s “described it as one of the cornerstones of his career to date,” according to the guidebook that serves as a complement to the exhibition.

 It depicts two naked, African-American men—one of whom is McQueen—apparently in a fight. The two circle each other aggressively, like in a boxing match, and occasionally grapple with each other. But, they also embrace and leer at each other coquettishly. This work blurs the line between fighting and an amorous encounter, like individuals engaging in rough foreplay.

“Girls, Tricky,” from 2001, has traces of the many instances of artists documenting musicians, like, for example, Martin Scorsese’s filming “The Rolling Stone’s” for 2008’s “Shine a Light,” plus many others. Here, though, McQueen filmed musician “Tricky” (Adrian Thaws) rehearsing and recording the song “Girls.” The video lasts nearly fifteen minutes; at times, it’s brutal to watch—less singing than anguished caterwauling. It’s rough and abrasive, because Tricky is an artist really putting all of himself into the music. It’s true, honest, and sincere.

McQueen was quoted as explaining, “It’s a rare moment that you see an artist close up gearing himself up for such a vocal performance in such a visual way. In effect, a moment not for camera is caught.”

Though most of the works in the exhibition are visual images—either moving or still—“Queen and Country” is an oak cabinet containing a series of 160 facsimile postage sheets; it’s also the most overtly political work in the exhibit. Presented here for the first time outside of the U.K., it’s McQueen’s tribute to the British men and women who died in the Iraq War.

The photos of the deceased, as the guidebook explains, “were turned into facsimile sheets of perforated stamps . . .The sheets are housed in an oak cabinet with sliding vertical drawers and ordered chronologically by the subject’s date of death.”

From farther back, the oak cabinet looks like a casket, and the soldiers are merely planks that make up the whole, but they become individualized when one removes the sheets bearing their names and photos. That’s a poignant and reflective moment, and it’s a brilliant piece.

McQueen, a London-born artist who’s been honored with the prestigious Turner Prize, gained a foothold in the public consciousness in 2011 with his second feature film, “Shame,” starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. The two actors, and McQueen’s writing and direction of the film, received numerous critical accolades and awards nominations. Despite that new success, McQueen’s first gained renown for his artwork, and the collection on display here in Chicago from Oct. 21, 2012-Jan. 6, 2013, is a showcase of his work from the last 20 years.

art exhibit

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi is a Latin phrase that means earthy things are fleeting, and it also serves as the title of the Industry Of The Ordinary exhibit currently showing at the Chicago Cultural Center.

The phrase’s literal meaning is “Thus passes the glory of the world,” and it’s a slogan that was used in papal ceremonies for hundreds of years. A similar Latin phrase was also whispered into the ears of conquering Roman generals, but the point—whether it was for popes, generals, or works of art in Chicago—remains the same: to attenuate hubris and remind all that nothing lasts forever.

Artists Adam Brooks and Matthew Wilson make up the team behind Industry Of The Ordinary (IOTO), and, according the informative pamphlet from the exhibit, “Their work . . . often consists of public interactions and interventions in which boundaries are blurred between the artists and the public, and between art and life.”

It’s not typical art, in the classic sense of paintings on walls, but, rather, more in the vein of Marcel Duchamp’s shock art, John Cage’s annihilation of boundaries between sound and music, and Allan Kaprow performance art.

One station at the exhibit, “Affair,” has a photo of a nude couple sitting on a hotel room bed with masks hiding their faces. The couple was embroiled in an extramarital affair, and IOTO paid for their romantic night at a hotel in exchange for the portrait.

Another station, “Homeland Security,” appeared to be a critique of the infamous U.S. color-coded terrorism threat level system. Five fabricated ceramic weights, in colors corresponding with threat levels—red, orange, yellow, blue, and green—were placed on the wall vertically.

Chris Dankert, who was staring at that exhibit, said, “It felt like it was symbolizing the way the terror-threat level system became a weight on the nation’s collective psyche.”

“Phosphorous,” from 2004, presented photos of 16 glasses—four across and four vertically. In each glass was urine from the artist, after drinking a crate of beer. The liquid began yellow and grew nearly clear by the final glass.

IOTO also presented audio stations. One, from 2004, titled “The Beautiful Game,” played fans singing a famous soccer chant. Naturally, sports are an incredibly ephemeral enterprise, felicitously following the exhibit’s title. Vinny Abramo, a sports fan from New Jersey who was listening intently to the audio, reflected that notion, saying, “Being a sports fan, man, when you’re team wins, you’re on top of the world, and when you lose, you feel buried [under the world].”

The other audio recording was the public answering, asked by IOTO, “what they have faith in.” Perhaps pointedly, many of the things people professed faith in have proved faulty, or, at least, unreliable.

One of the most provocative stations at the exhibit was “Tender II.” From top to bottom, under glass, were a one-hundred dollar bill, a ten-dollar bill, and a one-dollar bill. But, the “bills” were made from, respectively, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” the “Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States,” and the Bible. Two famous books and a vital document were all made into money. Brian Fu, who was gazing at the exhibit, thought it illustrated the way “Cash is the only real, true currency.”

Character	Actor
Tony Mendez	Ben Affleck
John Chambers	John Goodman
Lester Siegel	Alan Arkin
Jack O’Donnell	Bryan Cranston
Hamilton Jordan	Kyle Chandler
Directed by Ben Affleck. Runtime of 120 Minutes

Argo: 3.5 stars (out of Four)

Though Ben Affleck’s first two directorial efforts, “Gone Baby Gone” and “The Town,” were terrific, “Argo” takes even another step into the stratosphere, as Affleck adroitly balances the delicate tonal shifts between funny, Hollywood satire and the dire situation in Iran.

When an infuriated mob storms the U.S. Embassy and takes Americans hostage in November 1979, six Americans escape and take refuge in the Canadian Ambassador’s residence, and CIA operative Tony Mendez must rescue the six before the Iranians realize they’re missing. After the CIA and State Department consider a plethora of hopeless options, Mendez decides to extricate the six hostages by using a movie shoot as cover.

Of course, this cockamamie scheme strains credulity and would sink the movie--except it did actually happen. Truth is more incredible than fiction yet again.

In order to sell the movie’s authenticity to the Iranians, Mendez enlists make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman), who won an Oscar for his work on “Planet of the Apes,” and Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin).

This movie is especially timely, considering the current unrest in the Middle East. Scenes in “Argo” depicting Iranians spewing anti-American sentiments ring true, because anyone watching cable news right now often sees the same thing from citizens in numerous countries throughout the Middle East. As the hostage crisis drags on, “Argo” also shows footage of U.S. outrage against Iranians, which echoes the current state of America—where half the country is anti-immigration and some are borderline xenophobic.

Arkin and Goodman provide most of the movie’s comic relief, which Affleck effectively juxtaposes with the grave circumstances in Iran. Goodman slides perfectly into the part, like a grandfather settling into his favorite recliner. Arkin’s profane, grouchy geriatric recalls his highly similar, Oscar-winning portrayal of an X-rated grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine”--mixed with echoes of Dustin Hoffman’s egomaniacal and cynical Hollywood producer in Barry Levinson’s brilliant political satire “Wag the Dog.”

Victor Garber, as Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, and “Breaking Bad’s” Bryan Cranston, as Affleck’s CIA boss Jack O’Donnell, also provide steady, authoritative performances.

That Affleck, in only his third directorial effort, can deftly switch from archived news footage back to the actual film—and from comedy to Iran’s edgy, death-could-be-behind-any-corner tension—is an amazing achievement.

Late in the film, Arkin and Goodman butcher the famous Karl Marx quote, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”--and it’s an apropos quotation. The 1979 Iranian Revolution, and the hostage situation at the embassy, was a tragedy. The fact that 33 years later, the U.S. has again made itself the object of virulent hatred throughout the Middle East—obviously, no lessons learned—can only be farce.

Keep Playing the Trumpet

When the NY Knicks honored Bill Bradley by retiring his jersey, Bradley told the crowd at Madison Square Garden a story. 

 Bradley began, “At a gathering after a Knicks game in Chicago, a man asked me a question, ‘Do you really like playing basketball?’”

 “Yes, yes I do,” Bradley told the man.

 The man replied, “I know what you mean. I used to play the trumpet and we were good. Some of the guys in my band wanted to tour. But I didn’t.” 

 The man told Bradley he was afraid the life was too insecure and opted for the safer route—law school—instead. 

 Bradley then said, “I asked him, ‘Do you like the law?’”

 “Yes, but not like playing the trumpet,” the man acknowledged.


 Hip-hop artist Fare Games wants to play his metaphorical trumpet as long as possible.

 Though he adores the fellow members of his band, T.G.K.O.D.—also known as “Top Guns”—Games elected to “go solo.”

 “I want to make this a career,” Games said. “The other guys aren’t that committed.”

 Of course, like the trumpet player Bill Bradley met who opted to pursue a career in law, Games also has a non-musical contingency plan—the financial world.

 Games professes a keen interest in the stock market, and he plans to enroll in Chicago’s Roosevelt University in the fall of 2013 to major in finance.

 Nevertheless, his first love remains music.

 “This summer, I had a single on iTunes, and I shot three videos, too,” Games summarized.

 One of those videos garnered nearly 500,000 views.

 In addition, “I just dropped a mixtape [on September 28],” Games said.

 “Arcade Games,” his third mixtape, had over 1,300 views as of October 4.

 Games, 21, said, “I’m trying to get it [the latest mixtape] posted in as many places as possible to catch someone’s eye with it.”

 Games is confident, because “I put my all into this project.”

 Games, born Rifaa Muhammad, grew up on Chicago’s south side in a dangerous neighborhood.

 “There were gangbangers and drug dealers around,” Games said.

 However, he says that environment benefited him, because “they are all aspects to draw from in my music.”

 While Games was raised in that grueling setting, he wasn’t really of that world, because his mother removed him from the neighborhood public school after he completed first grade.

 She placed him in private school, where he thrived and earned a scholarship to a private, Catholic high school. Of course, Games is used to being on his own and feeling a bit out of place, since he’s the youngest of seven children—and the only boy.

 Though the high school was comprised predominantly of white students, and Games initially felt tentative, he said joining the football team—he played linebacker—helped him assimilate.

 “Up to that point, I had no white friends,” Games explained. “But that helped me meet people.”

 Games, who drew the “Fare Games” moniker while playing basketball with his cousins in Michigan, said continuing to meet people is integral to success in the music industry.

 “This business is all about networking, meeting people every day, and getting in touch with the important people,” Games said.

Theater review

In “Freud’s Last Session,” the adamant atheist Sigmund Freud invites Christian author C.S. Lewis to his London study, where the two engage in a vigorous discussion about music, physical pain, war, religion, sex, and their fathers in which both men make salient points, but neither “wins” the argument.

Despite their plethora of disagreements and nearly polar opposite worldviews, both men have a clear mutual respect for each other—a mutual respect that extends to the play’s director, Tyler Marchant, and the audience. The play is an honest discussion of major issues, and neither side is belittled for their views.

The play does not take sides, giving both positions equal time—which is a rarity in today’s hyper-partisan world where not only do I have to be right and you wrong, but you’re an unalloyed idiot for your beliefs.

Mike Nussbaum, who has directed and acted in Chicago Theatres for over 50 years, plays Freud with intelligence and wit, but also with an acute awareness of his mortality—he knows the end is near. The play takes place Sept. 3, 1939, when Freud was 83 and suffering excruciating pain from oral cancer. On multiple occasions, Freud breaks down from sudden, intolerable agony, blunting his conversational momentum.

Though he adamantly disagrees with Lewis, especially regarding Lewis’s conversion to Christianity, Freud admires the young author’s intelligence and views him as a worthy opponent for debate.

Freud invited Lewis to his study “for one reason:” to find out why someone (Lewis) “with such intellect would become a Christian.”

Lewis, played by Coburn Goss, is initially reticent and unsure of himself in Freud’s presence; after all, Freud’s more than twice his age, one of the world’s leading intellectuals, and he pokes at Lewis for being late to the meeting. But, he quickly settles in to debate Freud as an equal, not as a student or a patient, and gains confidence in himself and his arguments.

 Lewis demonstrates his respect for Freud when he refuses to leave the elder man alone--even as they both believe they’re about to be bombed—and when he compassionately assists Freud with his mouth and jaw pain.

The entire play consists of just the two men talking; they’re the only actors on the stage, and the only times the conversation halts is when Freud breaks down in pain, when the men tune into the radio for updates on the burgeoning war, or when they hear airplanes flying ominously overhead.

Their discourse is like an exceedingly high-level tennis match; both men hit the occasional winner, which the other chivalrously acknowledges, but neither even wins the match. This play has too much respect for both men, their philosophies, and the audience to do that. The idea is by no means to prove anyone correct, but to provide a thoughtful discussion about tender issues, and it’s highly effective.

At one point, Freud explains, “I enjoy provoking discussions,” and this play—with all the discourse about big ideas—is sure to accomplish Freud’s aim.

“Freud’s Last Session” plays at the Mercury Theater—located at 3745 N. Southport Ave.—and the last performance is November 11. 

Art preview story

Ryan Anderson
                   

                             Former Taxi Driver’s Artwork to be Displayed at Blackstone 

 Dmitry Samarov, a former Chicago taxi driver who wrote the popular “Chicago Hack” blog and authored the book, “Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab,” will be showcasing his art at the Blackstone branch of the Chicago Public Library beginning October 1.

 The art, titled “View from a Cab,” depicts images from Samarov’s time as a taxi driver in Chicago, which lasted from 2003 until he resigned his post in June 2012.

 Regarding the drawings in this showcase, Samarov wrote, “The gouache paintings of cabs were done on site at the O'Hare Airport Taxi Staging Area and the Yellow Cab garage, while the Sumi ink pieces were done from memory as illustrations” for his book and blog.

 In his description for the show, Samarov wrote, “It is my hope that you'll see something you know or recognize in them from your own experience as well.”

 Brenda Sawyer, who runs the “Friends of the Blackstone Library” group, set up the showing.

 In an e-mail, Sawyer said Samarov’s art is “very honest,” and there’s “no glossing things over, just straightforward, honest observation.”

 Furthermore, she praised him as “an observer of human nature [who] records what he sees [with] no add-ons.”

 Samarov’s artwork was also recently featured at the Rainbo Club, where it has been showcased multiple times over the last five years.

 Melina Ausikitis, who programs the art at the Rainbo Club, said via phone that she enjoys Samarov’s art because his “subjects are about everyday life,” and “are a window into his soul.”

 “It’s been a real pleasure to see his work change over the years,” Ausikitis said.

 Samarov graduated from art school in 1993, and he said, “Art’s my first love,” even though writing—on his blog and in the book—has brought him more renown thus far.

 “I relate to the world by drawing and painting,” Samarov said.

 He also says his dream would be to drop the writing aspect and subsist only on his artwork.

 Samarov is currently putting that artistic talent to use illustrating a children’s book, but most of his pieces are related to his time driving a cab in Chicago.

 Samarov said driving a cab in Chicago had a profoundly positive effect on his artwork, because the job was “great for people watching.”

 “You’re not quite a person as a cabdriver; you’re part of the scenery,” Samarov expounded. “It’s like you’re not there.”

 The Blackstone is located at 4904 S. Lake Park Ave., and Samarov’s 14 illustrations will appear in one of the reading rooms there through the end of October.

“The Mindy Project” proves a felicitous title for the new Fox sitcom starring Mindy Kaling, for the word “project” evokes thoughts of under construction, and, in the pilot, Mindy herself is very much a work in progress—as is the show. We hear so much about the vaunted “male gaze,” but this show is definitely shot from the “female gaze.” It’s Kaling’s voice through-and-through--for better or worse. Those who enjoy her humor—Kaling is a bestselling author, a supporting actress on NBC’s popular “The Office,” a prolific tweeter, and an Emmy-nominated writer and producer—will likely be charmed by her authentic lead performance. Those who don’t “get” her humor won’t suddenly be enchanted by this show. In the pilot, Mindy is a lovelorn ob-gyn juggling her career while trying to find her perfect guy and do nothing short of changing her entire life. She vows to lose weight, cease having casual sex with a dreamy but roguish British doctor in her office--Jeremy Reed (played by Ed Weeks)—and generally grow up. The show, which premieres September 25 at 8:30 p.m. CDT, begins with Mindy’s voiceover narration--which recurs frequently throughout the episode—describing her life up until that point. She confesses her obsession with romantic comedies, explains her path to becoming a doctor, and recounts falling madly in love only to be dumped. Heartbroken and bitter, she attends the wedding of the man who left her, where she drinks too much and gives an uncomfortable toast. Her drunken ride through the neighborhood on a bicycle ends with her at the bottom of a pool, where she is castigated by a comely female doll telling her to “pull it together.” She breaks down in tears, is arrested, then bailed out by her best friend, Gwen Grandy (played by Anna Camp), who tells her, “Your life is not a romantic comedy.” Throughout the pilot, Mindy is torn between turning over a new leaf and remaining in stasis. She goes on a date with Ed Helms, of “Hangover” movie fame, but bails to deliver the baby of an uninsured woman who doesn’t speak English—who she first refused to treat because, “I have to do things that move my life forward.” In her attempt at reform, she repeatedly rebuffs the advances of Reed, who she has long been “friends with benefits” with, only to fall back into his arms at the end—so much for progress! The pilot is filled with pop-culture references, not only to romantic comedies, but also to Siri, Michael Fassbender, Jon Stewart, and much more. Mindy also verbally spars with another doctor, Danny Castellano (Chris Messina), and banters with her staff, Betsy Punch (Zoe Jarman) and Shauna Dicanio (Amanda Setton). “Mindy” jams a great deal of exposition into 22 minutes, but should settle into a less break-neck pace as the weeks go by. Females are more likely to empathize with Mindy’s travails, while males might find themselves bewildered by Mindy’s quirkiness and her repeated failure to follow through on making life changes.