New and Notable Press

Sector 2337 + Green Lantern Press

Sector 2337
“Logan Square Book Store And Art Gallery Sector 2337 Closing — But Owners Will Keep Publishing,” Mina Bloom, Block Club Chicago
Lacking the funding they need to stay open long-term, the owners have chosen to shut down the storefront and focus instead on partnerships going forward. Full article here. 

Eduardo Kac
“An Art Not of this Earth: Eduardo Kac at Sector 2337,” Lori Waxman, Temporary Art Review
Earth has been feeling especially small and dark lately. Perhaps it’s just the days getting shorter. Or maybe it’s the politics getting more partisan, the hurricanes more destructive, the healthcare more expensive, the gap between very rich and everybody else more immense. But knowing that a work of art was created in outer space floods me with lightness and possibility. Full review here.

“Wasp sting,” Matthew Goulish, The Brooklyn Rail 
A shape of paper trimmed by an astronaut—from a standard sheet into something like a letter M—floats in zero gravity. Through a hole at its center a tube, another blank page rolled and inserted there, transects the axis, making the object multi-dimensional. Air currents buffet it as they would a kite, and it arcs and bounces on its wobbly flight around the space station’s interior. The performance realizes a plan of the artist, Eduardo Kac, for writing untethered to gravity, letters multidirectional as planetary bodies. Video-documented and projected on an immersive room-sized portal’s wall, the paper form levitates before a backdrop of windows and an upside-down earth’s blue and white horizon. Full review here. 

Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect

2018 Graham Foundation Grant Recipient

The Green Lantern Press is proud to announce that it’s forthcoming publication, Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect (edited by Romi Crawford) received a 2018 grant from the Graham Foundation!

The Wall of Respect, a 1967 public artwork, depicted black heroes and heroines in the areas of music, art, literature, politics, and sports. No sign indicates its existence today, but the wall sparked a nationwide mural movement, platformed community engagement, and was a seminal work of the black arts movement. While the wall needs to be marked, this new publication, Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect, argues against making a monument of the original site. Instead, editor Romi Crawford asked a range of artists, designers, and architects—each with differing degrees of proximity to the wall’s legacy—to realize antiheroic and unstatic strategies for commemoration. The result is a collection of “fleeting monuments” that invite readers to enact these gestures, either in mind or real time. Using the intimate and portable book format, Fleeting Monuments for the Wall of Respect commemorates the wall while proposing new strategies for embodied public memory. This publication is due for release in the Spring of 2019.

Confirmed artist contributors include: Miguel Aguilar, Wisdom Baty, Mark Blanchard, Bethany Collins, D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem, Julio Finn, Maria Gaspar, Wills Glasspiegel, Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, Kelly Lloyd, Faheem Majeed, Nicole Mitchell, Naeem Mohaiemen, Amus Mor, Karega Kofi Moyo, Robert E. Paige, Kamau Amu Patton, Jefferson Pinder, Cauleen Smith, Rohan Ayinde Smith, solYchaski, Norman Teague, Jan Tichy, Mechtild Widrich, Bernard Williams, and Lauren Berlant.

About the Editor: Romi Crawford, is professor in the Visual and Critical Studies and Liberal Arts Departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her research revolves primarily around formations of racial and gendered identity and the relation to American visual arts, film, and popular culture. She makes regular contributions to publications on African American art and culture including, Theaster Gates, Black Archive (Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2017); “Do For Self: The AACM and the Chicago Style” in Support Networks (University of Chicago Press, 2014); and “Ebony and Jet On Our Minds…In Our Homes. On the Wall” in Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art (Studio Museum in Harlem, 2014). She is coauthor (with Abdul Alkalimat and Rebecca Zorach) of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). Crawford was cocurator (with Lisa Lee) of the 2017 Open Engagement Conference, themed “Justice.”

 

Eduardo Kac bookstore selections

Publications for Inner Telescope available in the bookstore:

In conjunction with Eduardo Kac’s exhibition Inner Telescope, we are pleased to present a selection of titles by the artist available for purchase in the gallery’s bookstore or online:

ISS#71904, Eduardo Kac

Space Poetry, Eduardo Kac

It’s not easy being green!, Eduardo Kac

Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond, ed. Eduardo Kac

Life Extreme: An Illustrated Guide to the New Life, Eduardo Kac and Avital Ronell

2018 Spring in Review

Some highlights from Sector 2337’s spring public programs include readings, screenings, performances, book launches, and discussions.  All events are free to the public and produced by the Green Lantern Press, 501(c)(3). Thanks to everyone for your participation!

Twins

Lou Mallozzi fingerprinting volunteers for his exhibition, 1:1, 2018.

 

Xu+Roche3

“Doors open and shut. / We’ve come to the place where nothing shines. / I hear eternity.” Lynn Xu reads with Jennifer Roche as part of the Six Points Reading Series, organized by the Poetry Center of Chicago, Sector 2337, 2018. (Quote from “Earth Light: I,” Poetry Foundation).

 

Xu+Roche2

Jennifer Roche reads with Lynn Xu as part of the Six Points Reading Series feat., coorganized by the Chicago Poetry Center, Sector 2337, 2018.

 

Dierdre Huckaby and Jenna Lyle

Dierdre Huckaby and Jenna Lyle perform Two Flutes and One Mic: A Duet in Response to Lou Mallozzi’s 1:1, Sector 2337, 2018.

OnCivDis_onfloor

“There is an island in the ocean where in 1914 a few Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans lived. No cable reaches that island, and the British mail steamer comes but once in sixty days.” (On Civil Disobedience: Dallas, Detroit, Prague, Chicago— Notes on Denial, distance, defiance, and dogs by Stephen Laptisophon, Green Lantern Press, 2018).

 

“It is a record of an instant and if its receptions-” Shawn Michelle Smith, reading at the SHADOWED! book launch, Ace Hotel, Chicago.

 

Mitsu Salmon performs for the SHADOWED! book launch, Ace Hotel, 2018.

 

Joanna Hedva and TKTKT coorganized with the Goethe Institut, March 2018

Johanna Hedva reads from THIS EARTH OUR HOSPITAL in conversation with Sarah Cluggish,  coorganized with FD13 and the Goethe-Institut, Sector 2337, 2018. “…once you start to understand how oppression and domination work, you start to understand that the universal is a bankrupt subject position. Not only is it violent, and the instrument that is used by oppression and domination, but it is also a fantasy.” Hedva quote from Monstering Mag.

 

Muting as Manner feat. Izah Ransohoff+Tannaz Motevalli+Nabil Vega, curated by Samantha Yi Yao Chao, Sector 2337, 2018.

Muting as Manner feat. Izah Ransohoff+Tannaz Motevalli+Nabil Vega, curated by Samantha Yi Yao Chao, Sector 2337, 2018.

 

Bryan Saner and Matty Davis, March 2018

Bryan Saner and Matty Davis perform A Dance: A Duet in Response to Lou Mallozzi’s 1:1,  Sector 2337, 2018.

 

Mallozzi Yood

Lou Mallozzi and Jim Yood discuss Mallozzi’s exhibition, 1:1, Sector 2337, 2018.

 

Guetat-Livani and Nathaneal, April 2018

Translations of poetry by Frédérique Guétat-Liviani and Nathanaël, Sector 2337, 2018.

 

Markul, May 2018

Angelika Markul, early hours of the opening for If the hours were already counted, Sector 2337, 2018.

 

Summer shadows

Summer sends a swoop over Liz McCarthy’s Handles Expenditure, Shoebox Gallery installation, 2018.

 

Lit Crawl

“My where begins with “no” and ends in ellipses.” Kenyatta Rogers pictured reading at An Exquisite Crawl: HOMEROOM and MAKE Literary Productions, Sector 2337, 2018  (quote from Bat City Review).

 

LitCrawl3_better

MEGA LAVERNE & SHIRLEY perform at Exquisite Crawl: HOMEROOM & MAKE Literary Productions, “The ants are licking the peonies,” Sector 2337, 2018. (Quote from Ed Roberson’s poem, “Nine Chicago Poems” whose first line is the starting point of each affiliated exquisite corpse event).

 

Alamgam_Pouya

“My intention behind the journal was to bring together people who worked with language and typography, but I wanted them to reflect on each other’s profession. So the linguists would write about design and the typographers would write a piece of fiction; a somewhat contradictory situation,” Pouya Ahmadi in conversation with Pegha Ahmadi for the Amalgam book launch, Sector 2337, 2018. (Quote from It’s Nice That).

 

Goulish: sector2337“Query: How to contrive not to waste one’s time? Answer: By being fully aware of it all the while. This awareness arrests the ephemeral in an act of reversal, internal or external: the exercise of attention by turning it away. When the guardian turns away, the prisoner escapes. But is it an escape, or a radical recapture? The evil eye that protects against the evil eye? If theater is the house of time, one captures time’s force by refusing it at the door.” A little green on green from the newly released second edition of Matthew Goulish’s “The Brightest Thing in the World: 3 Lectures from The Institute of Failure,” Green Lantern Press, 2018.

 

IMG_4970

“How are we to describe the nature of that which functions through a performance of invisibility? How are we to ask questions of a system that, through its very purpose, oftentimes fools us into thinking that it is all but absent?” The VGA Reader presents Evan Meaney, Sector, 2018. (Quote from INCITE!)

 

Kayla Anderson

“The Ark has a ring to it like Heaven’s Gate, which is why before coming here I constantly told friends half-jokingly ‘hopefully its an art project and not a suicide cult.’ My solace was that typically, suicide cults always leave a messenger, and as the one allowed a laptop for writing, perhaps I could be such a scribe.” Kayla Anderson reads from Notes From No Place for the closing of If the hours were already counted, 2018.

 

Rebecca Nakaba

“Another misconception I run across is that the majority of B-movie creatures were created through nuclear waste.” Rebecca Nakaba reads for the closing of If the hours were already counted, 2018. (Quote from “Q&A with C.Relkbi, aka Rebecca Nakaba,” Meekling Press.)

 

McCarthy_Jory2

Liz McCarthy and Jory Drew perform Pulling Handles, for the closing of Handles Expenditure, Sector 2337, 2018.

 

 

Spring 2018 Publicity Highlights

We put together some of the GLP’s favorite highlights from this last spring!

Liz McCarthy, Handles Expenditure, 2018. Installation view, Shoebox Gallery, Sector 2337. Photo by Clare Britt.

Liz McCarthy, Handles Expenditure, 2018. Installation view, Shoebox Gallery, Sector 2337. Photo by Clare Britt.

“By using her body to shape the clay, there is a performative aspect to [Liz McCarthy’s] exhibition that further reflects how human intervention defines material and fully grips particular shapes, even when they are out of context.” — KT Hawbaker, Chicago Tribune on Liz McCarthy’s Shoebox Gallery exhibit, Handles Expenditure, curated by Sharmyn Cruz Rivera.
huddle

Excerpted spread from SHADOWED! a book about the work of Ellen Rothenberg, Green Lantern Press, 2018. Book design by Sonia Yoon. Photo by August Evans.


“Lorca writes, “…at other times, when a poet or composer is no such thing, the performer’s duende, interestingly, creates a new wonder that has the appearance of, but is not, primitive form.” What a long, new, wonder SHADOWED! casts.” —August Evans, Fanzine on SHADOWED! a book about the work of Ellen Rothenberg.
Angelika Markul If the hours were already counted, 2016. Installation video with music by Simon Ripoll-Hurier. Film, black and white, sound, 11’47’’ loop. Naica crystal framed and a crystal-shaped installation.

Angelika Markul If the hours were already counted, 2016. Installation video with music by Simon Ripoll-Hurier. Film, black and white, sound, 11’47’’ loop. Naica crystal framed and a crystal-shaped installation.

“The Platonic irony of this journey is apparent in how it requires a return to the cave to seek knowledge, and upon the return to this Prehistoric Eden, the seekers encounter an environment that has evolved alongside themselves, out of the general human purview, and in conflict with anthropoid corporeal interests.” — Gareth Kaye, (Chicago Artist Writers) on our spring exhibition, If the hours were already counted, curated by Caroline Picard.

Noël Morical, untitled, 2018. Paracord wall hangings, dimensions vary. Photo by Claire Britt.

Noël Morical, untitled, 2018. Paracord wall hangings, dimensions vary. Photo by Claire Britt.

“Comprised of a utilitarian material, Morical’s weavings take the sturdy, military-grade fiber and turn it into joyful, manic artwork, which feels like a formalist queering of the medium. The self-serious, weaponized textile takes on an active, playful aesthetic, with a visual language dependent upon the rope’s ability to stay secure under pressure. It’s organized chaos at its best. Ultimately, the weavings are a fine balance of pragmatism and summer camp, like a friendship bracelet between the artist and the material.”— KT Hawbaker, (Chicago Tribune) on Noël Morical’s offsite GLP exhibition at the Ace Hotel, curated by Sharmyn Cruz Rivera.

Image is of Manal Kara’s exhibition “Immanentizing the Eschaton” in the Shoebox Gallery at Sector 2337. Photo by Claire Britt.

Image is of Manal Kara’s exhibition “Immanentizing the Eschaton” in the Shoebox Gallery at Sector 2337. Photo by Claire Britt.

“Kara’s installation is about time. That’s to state the obvious. The poisonous plants, the eggs, the bib open onto fantasies of coming, endings, and endtimes. The work’s materials mark this opening as well. Plastics, as we know—like the acrylic of which this installation is largely composed—entail a duration of decay beyond anything we can really reasonably comprehend…But interwoven with this far future is another timeline: the one that is already here, in which we can’t imagine an endtime because we’re already in it; in which the name Jupiter summons not the planet nor the Roman deity, but Sailor Jupiter of Sailor Moon with her rose earrings and flower hurricane attack; in which we’ve all got tattoos of barbed wire and stylized tribal flames like those cut out of acrylic that litter the floor of the installation.” — Willy Smart, (Sixty Inches from Center), on Manal Kara’s Shoebox Gallery exhibition, Immanentizing the Eschaton, curated by Sharmyn Cruz Rivera.

Shadowed-91

Excerpted spread from SHADOWED! a book about the work of Ellen Rothenberg, Green Lantern Press, 2018. Photo and design by Sonia Yoon.

“In Shadowed! images of crowds gathered, dancing, defiant—and of trash heaps, too—segue into documentation of a recent Syrian protest filled with swathes of bright colors and movement, where the passage of the crowd is easier to discern than the outline of a single body. Here these messy moments unfold simultaneously, bleeding into one another across distance and time.” — Anne Yoder, (BOMB), on SHADOWED!, a book on the work of Ellen Rothenberg.
Stephen Lapthisophon, Styles of Radical Will, 2017. Installation view, Sector 2337. Photo by Clare Britt.

Stephen Lapthisophon, Styles of Radical Will (Italian Sculpture), 2017. Installation view, Sector 2337. Photo by Clare Britt.

“Because his marks and objects in the gallery have an aura of familiarity, one has a sense of reaching for an elusive—yes, fugitive—meaning, only to see instead how accessibility is mistakenly presupposed. How the architecture upon which we hang significance is typically so common as to be taken for granted—is that really a g? The rise and run of a staircase is so habitual as to disappear until the tread is not where one’s foot expects it. The stability of our worldview quakes a little: the cartoon coyote running off a cliff and blinking before it begins to fall.” —Caroline Picard, (The Chicago Review) on Stephen Lapthisophon’s exhibition, Styles of Radical Will (Italian Sculpture), curated by Devin King and Caroline Picard.