BEN RUSSELL: NURSES: Nov 6 – Dec 11, 2010, Chicago, Il
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NOVEMBER 6, 2010 – DECEMBER 11, 2010
Opening reception: Saturday 6-9 pm, November 6th, 2010
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Come to Pilsen and get nursed at the BR gallery, November 6, 2010 – December 11, 2010. The fun continues.
ABOUT THE SHOW
“Now that we’ve got all of that meta-BEN RUSSELL one-year anniversary action out of the way, it’s time to move onto the real order of business – we’re talking NURSES (of course), and what better way to honor the memory all of those post-Halloween Sexy Nurse / Sexy Florence Nightingale costumes than with a group art show that will care for you in your moment of ill health? We’ve seen you sniffling on the train, sneezing at the zoo, and staying in bed on Election Day – we saw you hit your head with your bass guitar while performing in a Nirvana cover band last night, and we know that the 8-year old in you is still in need of sustenance.
This almost-always recession-cusp-of-the-everyday is apparently unrelenting, and most of can’t afford Japanese Robonurses to carry our stricken selves from bed to bed to bed. It’s in times like this that the soothing, comforting, and occasionally lactating powers of art can be called upon to heal us – BEN RUSSELL : NURSES stands as proof that artists are the new clinicians, that apartment spaces are their temporary free clinics…
And so: when you find yourself multiplied and contorted and devouring your own flesh (DONNER), let us dress your wounds. When you have been beaten upon and pounded into like the skins of so many heavy metal drum heads (POSITIVE), let us put a salve upon your bruises. BEN RUSSELL : NURSES is art for the body – let us be your healthcare professional!
Like the memory-image of battlefield matrons conjured up through the smell of fresh oil paint (HOFFMAN) or a jellyfish-shaped monument to bodily fluids (FAIN) or the hand of God descending upon your weary frame while a Madonna song echoes through those dark nights (CIOCCI), BEN RUSSELL : NURSES is art for the soul – make an appointment now and avail yourself of our metaphoric health care setting!”
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ANDY POSITIVE AND HIS DISSONANT RIDERS “are from mind’s eye from Mosinee and western Massachusetts. Andy with some help from the Beard, from western Massachusetts, works in the public field explaining corporate procedures and Andy is a history collector of the blues (the Blue Riders). We play in order for unity, not to be hard really but more because I don’t get do this very often ” – Andy Positive
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BEN RUSSELL is an art space in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Co-curated by artists Brandon Alvendia and Ben Russell and situated around the front two rooms in the apartment of its namesake, BEN RUSSELL began presenting a series of month-long 5-person shows on Memorial Day Weekend in the year 2009. Participating artists are invited to produce and exhibit work that is in accordance with the title/theme of each show, the name of which will be derived entirely from the 10 letters in the words “ben russell.” Future shows may include BEN RUSSELL : LENS, BEN RUSSELL : REBELS, and BEN RUSSELL : US. In keeping with the structural conceits of the French Oulipo language group and the spatial and material limits of what is effectively a rented apartment, BEN RUSSELL maintains a strict set of restrictions for all exhibiting artists by which:
– One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work scaled at a minimum of three quarters of the thirteen by ten foot wall.
– One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work at a maximum of one half of the opposing wall space between the two adjacent doors.
– One artist shall produce a time-based work to be presented via a CRT flat screen monitor (and associated components) with Dolby 5.1 audio in the adjacent screening room.
– One artist shall produce work to be installed in the all-weather sculpture garden.
– One artist shall produce work to be performed for the duration of 15-30 minutes during the opening.
BEN RUSSELL features a rotating roster of Chicago-based and non-Chicago-based artists and will be open for viewings one night a month and by appointment, as needed.