I do not know the people in these pieces.  The photos I’m using were found at resale shops, in magazines, on my television as vintage commercials or public service announcements, and the one at the beach is my own shot – but it’s of strangers.  Using acrylic paint to obscure portraits and figures, I hope to convey a sense of wonder at the complexities that we all contain – a wonder that can make us feel closer together, further apart, or both simultaneously.

I remember having a panic attack when, as a child, it first occurred to me that everyone around me was also constantly experiencing thoughts – and I have often thought of my life since then in terms of my navigation (for better and for worse) of this obvious yet enormous fact.  To what extent are we able to acknowledge other people as fully autonomous persons with pasts and futures, with passions and fears just as real as our own?  To what extent do you realize that when you see a stranger going by, there might as well be a whole world walking past you?

Making this mixed media work reminded me of a book by Immanuel Kant, in which he talked about an experience of cognitive dissonance he called “the sublime” in which a person’s logical, quantitative apprehension of magnitude is confronted by their inability to actually comprehend monstrous orders of scale.  Although Kant was writing about experiences of natural phenomena at the time (being atop a mountain, witnessing a huge storm, etc.), I feel like “sublime” in this sense is an appropriate word to describe the overwhelming feeling when one begins to fathom the depths of another person – whether that person is a total stranger or somebody previously known whom one begins to see in a more comprehensive way.  Accordingly, the title of the larger series of which these pieces are a part is “I Face Your Sublime Body”.

One of the first pieces I made in this style began with a photo of an ex-partner.  Seeing a photo of this person so many years later felt strange because, surprisingly, their physical image had little to do with my memories of our relationship.  Making a piece with that photo, replacing that person’s literal image with colors and form…it simply felt like more of an accurate representation of the vagaries of my memory, which had become the truth of my memory.  I wondered how I would feel if I did the same thing to an image of a stranger; and when I did I felt somehow closer to them.  Not that I believed I knew them in any way – and in fact I’d probably begun assigning them a ton of false narratives based on how they looked precisely because I’d been paying so much attention to their photo – but I was only able to do that until I couldn’t see their actual appearance anymore, i.e. until I cut away their image.

When I cut away the image, the person’s borders are still there but empty, full only of potential, absent of any expression or wrinkle or scar that might compel me to pre-judge them or make any assumptions; a person-shaped void that doesn’t allow me to do anything other than assume that I know nothing about them – except that their life is or was just as real as my own.

Chicago, IL, (November 21, 2020) – Inspired by a desire to continue programming and reach audiences beyond the ubiquitous “virtual” showings that are a feature of our present moment, EXTRA Projects is thrilled to introduce the Pandemic Safety Kit. Working in collaboration with the featured artists in the current “UNPORTRAIT” exhibition and with local perfumer Russell Weiss, EXTRA Projects exhibition curator and co-director Kristina Daignault envisioned a hand sanitizing mist and face mask kit. This limited-edition kit is available exclusively through Deep Field Aromatics online.

Purchase the Pandemic Safety Kit at: https://www.deepfieldaromatics.com/unportrait-pandemic-safety-kit

Baiser de Pêche was created with the goal of elevating a functional object to a work of art. This bespoke hand purification mist was made with 18 different botanical extracts by Chicago-based Russel Weiss of Deep Field Aromatics. Weiss worked with inspiration from “Peach” by Laura Collins to develop this limited-edition scented mist with packaging design by Chris Grieshaber of EXTRA Projects. This collaboration also introduces a limited-edition face mask with an artwork detail from a piece by Frederik Nitsch, titled Color Field 4E.

Laura Collins is a visual artist based in Chicago working toward a Master of Fine Art in Painting + Drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago. She earned a Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts in Painting from the University of Illinois and a Master of Arts in New Media from DePaul University. She has additionally earned a Graduate Certificate in Women & Gender Studies from DePaul University.

Collins works mainly with minimalist collage and painting. Each piece serves as an invitation to meditate on the absurdity of pageantry and to contemplate the implied scrutiny of the public gaze.

www.lauracollins.com

Frederick Nitsch has a BA in philosophy (Boston University, 2006) and pursued graduate study of the same at Loyola University before leaving his combined MA/PhD program for mental health reasons in 2011.  He now works part-time for a mental health nonprofit, doing outreach and education at high schools around Chicago and assisting with training for the city’s first responders. Frederick lives and paints in Rogers Park, where he has been for 13 years.  Nitsch is also an active member of Chicago’s improv comedy community.

fwnitsch.wixsite.com