Chicago artists Jesse Butcher and Corkey Sinks, channel their inner rural American adolescent for Surrender Dorothy at Concertina Gallery. Modeled around the motif an adolescent's bedroom, the large-scale installation features collaborations and independent work from both artists. Concertina is one of Chicago's many apartment galleries which allows Butcher/Sinks' domestic artifice to work perfectly. The self-aware angst-ridden objects point towards a critical look at the struggle to find an identity in the fog of puerile culture.
The work of Butcher and Sinks reminds us that adolescence is not just a time when people rebel against their parents it is also period of cultural cannibalization. Black tie-dye panels frame the installation in two rooms. One black tie-dye room is filled by black race car bed constructed from plywood and finished with a quilt constructed of band t-shirts. A video monitor featuring a burning drum set lays casually on the quilt. Like the dichotomy of black tie-dye the bed and quilt conjure a teen who doesn't yet know if they want to be a stoner or metal head.
The tendency to straddle identities flows into the back room where a dismantled girl's bike is painted black and chained to a black pole that circumvents the room. On either wall of this room charming yet troublesome black yarn Ojos de Dios (God's Eyes) scream "Daria Goes Summer Camp." Butcher and Sinks repeat a unified paint it black strategy to subvert many objects in the show. This action becomes a way of reclaiming identities and moving them into a space that is self-othered.
Surrender Dorthy runs through March 28th at Concertina Gallery. Gallery hours are. Sundays 12:00 - 5PM or by appointment, check their website for details and directions.
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