22nd Century exhibit encourages participation
ChanSchatz’s assistants work on the exhibit, “22nd Century,” in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
February 4, 2015
Since its inception, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) has provided art exhibitions and education programs for the residents and visitors at no charge.
The museum provides an exhilarating setting for the presentation and conservation of modern and contemporary art. Special programs like Hair Affair and Design MMoCA, and exhibitions featuring esteemed modern contemporary artists and talks, have made the museum a key downtown destination.
This month, MMoCA will present “22nd Century,” an exhibition by Eric and Heather ChanSchatz. Eric and Heather ChanSchatz are New York-based artists whose work has been shown through the U.S. and internationally.
This exhibition will present artwork with graffiti like murals extensions from the pieces created in conjunction with international communities. Some communities include American soldiers in Iraq, coal miners in Pennsylvania, stateless children in Thailand, and Cairo citizens in the Arab Spring. In addition, a new painting, specifically based on the participation of the city of Madison residents with ChanSchatz, will be situated within the main gallery. Through ChanSchatz, the artists’ work with communities has embodied key issues faced by society and events that have defined this generation.
The platform of participation and interactions ChanSchatz cultivate with distinct groups constitute a central element of their work; the artists have invited the public to contribute to the painting composition with their chosen ChanSchatz characters, color combinations, and texts from the ChanSchatz Archive and Library. Based on the choices and the narratives gathered during the exchanges, ChanSchatz’s paintings bring together individuals and communities in social landscapes anchored to places, people, and events.
The paintings then become available and open to the widest audience through ChanSchatz’s universals the artists employ in their artworks. For the exhibition at MMoCA, ChanSchatz will be painting large-scale wall murals to realize each of the painting installations brought together for the exhibition.
As part of the new exhibition at MMoCA, the artists are undertaking a highly interactive process of engaging with the Madison community. MMoCA will be presenting ChanSchatz’s new project “Madison: A Cooperative Almanac” is a participatory artwork.
The artists are inviting all Madison residents to take part in creating a new inclusive and shared moment embracing the city’s collective yet layered identity.
The collective visual selections and narrative dialogues from Madison will form the core of the new artwork. Through the different choices and expression, the artists hope to reflect and contribute to the spirit of Madison in the creating of a new piece of artwork.
