Tag Archive
A magazine called desire
“Free whiskey’s over there, and the sex magazine is in the corner,” said the Alan-Rickman-as-Snape look-alike taking tickets, as we entered the Co-Prosperity Sphere for the release party of Lumpen’s ’95 sex magazine. »
What’s the Matter with Pilsen?: The Chicago Arts District falls on hard times as artists head south to Bridgeport
Bursting with art studios and galleries a few years ago, Pilsen’s stretch of South Halsted Street now features flyers advertising the potential of empty storefronts. Crowds continue to pack the street on the district’s monthly Second Friday event, but they find fewer open galleries and openings than in past months. A good portion of... »
The Art Community of the Future: Lumpen’s annual Select Media Festival returns for year eight
Independent arts collective Lumpen’s eighth annual Select Media Festival promises to offer four nights of video programming, group exhibitions, performance art, and live music that will shock, blast, and perhaps even use hypnosis to instill art appreciation back into anyone who’s been jaded by too many wine and cheese gallery openings. »
Make No Little Plans: Lumpen thinks big for its ninth annual Version arts festival
Henry Glover has rhythm from his head to his toes—literally. He lifts up his shoe to reveal a small electrical sensor that is wired to an audio jack in the sole. When the shoes are plugged into an output device, synthesized drum beats correspond to Glover’s tapping foot. Yet as Glover wanders through the... »
Noise Nerds: AIDS Wolf draws on Schoenberg and the occult for their latest album
It’s a cold, rainy night, and as the author, phone in hand, waits for her overpriced Medici takeout, Chloe from AIDS Wolf is on the other line. She finally finds silence in a bathroom at the Toronto club Sneaky Dee’s. Fighting a bad case of bronchitis and iffy reception, Chloe laughs: it’s raining in... »
Third Fridays in Bridgeport
I know that art is supposed to transcend earthly realities and all, but when Bridgeport’s January Third Friday gallery walk also landed on the coldest winter spell so far this year, reality inevitably intruded. Gallery openings were hard to spot, with nearly no one on the streets passing from one to another. The only... »
Infoporn, Eastern Expansion, and the new Bridgeport Art District: What Lumpen has in store for this year’s Select Media Festival
At first glance, a casual visitor might not expect Bridgeport to be an emerging hub for Chicago’s art scene: streets are stark, shops are scattered, and the wind chimes that dangle from residential houses break the silence. But lo and behold, on the southeast corner of 32nd and Morgan is the Co-Prosperity Sphere, one... »
Scary as Hell: The best of the South Side’s Halloween haunts
In 2006, the Salem Baptist Church in Pullman hosted a “Night of Terror”—one of those Halloween events some religious groups have to scare the crap out of kids. Only the things they use to scare them aren’t skeletons or ghosts, but abortions and homosexuals—because getting the former or being the latter presumably means you’re... »
