The performative exhibition, taking place during the Year of Chicago Dance, includes new collaborative works created by four pairs of dancers and visual artists who share their processes, techniques, and values with one another. From this dialogue, the dancer identifies one essential word undergirding the visual artist’s practice, then translates it to a choreographic “tool” that determines body movements for a dance piece created in response. The four tools developed in this exhibition includes: splice, mask, knot, and bowerbirding (building a nest from decorative objects). The dance pieces will be presented in the forms of both live performances throughout the duration of the exhibition and recorded videos seen in four art installations including large paintings, a sound installation, and massive woven fiber work.

The four dancer/artist pairings include Damon Green/Sadie Woods, Sarah Gonsiorowski/Jacqueline Surdell, Carrie Hanson/Edra Soto, and Maggie Vannucci (with choreography design by Dee Alaba)/Jackie Kazarian. The four visual artists–all Chicago-based, female, with human physicality present in their media–were selected by Hanson and Quinn to celebrate the female led dance company consisting of primarily female dancers.

Toolbox @ Twenty is the latest installment of Toolbox, an ongoing special project of The Seldoms, born out of a cross-disciplinary exchange between visual and dance artists in Glasgow in July 2017 around how to translate visual art practice to choreographic, spark new tactics of dance making, and invigorate choreographic practices.

The exhibition is on view from September 24, 2022 to November 13, 2022.

View Hyde Park Art Center