EXPO CHICAGO 2024

JOSEPH COCHRAN II “BALZAKH” & KIAH CELESTE IN/SITU

APRIL 11-14 , 2024

Booth 276 - Editions + Books

IN/SITU Curated Section

Navy Pier, 600 E Grand Ave, Chicago IL 60611

For this year edition of EXPO CHICAGO Swivel Gallery is pleased to present a solo presentation of Joseph Cochran II, featuring a curated selection of his C-Prints alongside the release of the new hardcover monograph of his photographic works, Barzakh, spanning over 10 years of the artist’s work.

In addition, Kiah Celeste will present the large-scale site responsive work Aloof It All, 2024 as part of the IN/SITU Section curated by Amara Antilla.

Joseph Cochran II (b. 1990), *Christmas Day*, 2015, Chromogenic Print, 30 x 20½ in. / 76.2 x 52.07 cm - Edition 1-3 of 3 + 1 AP

JOSEPH COCHRAN II , BARZAKH

Swivel Gallery will showcase a solo presentation of Joseph Cochran II, featuring a curated selection of his C-Prints alongside the release of the new hardcover monograph of his photographic works, Barzakh, spanning over 10 years of the artist’s work.

The title of the book "Barzakh", comes from the Quranic concept of Barzakh, the space between here and thereafter, or the stage between death and resurrection. Photographs, archival documents, and interviews conducted by the artist populate the book, creating a web of connection whose nexus is the artist's personal story in relation to the subjects he interfaces with throughout his extensive travels and stays.

Cochran’s photography takes one through an envious array of life and it’s minutiae, through moments, time, and emotion captured only through a lens of someone who undeniably grasps this place we all call home and it’s temporality in a way that is unteachable, and only arrived at with multitudes of experience.

While Cochran’s approach is entrenched in the craft of photography, drawing on the medium's specific tools, its real magic may stem from his ability to measure time, and space, in millimeters and milliseconds.

One can ascertain, its development derives from the constant struggle of survival in Black America, a sense of urgency where every minute is creation, every minute the world is falling to pieces, and death is always present. Through this lens, figuratively and literally the artist is able to recognize both suffering, and the supernatural; intuitively transcending the subject and becoming an experience between you and that decisive moment.

Photography is for Cochran both a way to record and catch the moment when people manifest their nature through seemingly trivial acts and mundane gestures. This hypersensitivity, the unteachable ability to recognize a momentary shift, which on one hand could be labeled paranoia, and on the other a deep momentary meditative state is the paradigm of Cochran’s practice.

Following in the footsteps of masters of photography the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, and Dawoud Bey, Cochran’s Poststructuralist approach stresses the importance of the signified, the idea – the connotation, which in turn is influenced by the cultural perspective of the viewer, where one creates their own fragmented narrative based on their own respective personal experience. It is an art which is made with time, and time expects it.

BUY THE BOOK

KIAH CELESTE AT IN/SITU

Kiah Celeste (b. 1994), *Aloof It All*, 2024, Carpet Padding, Fabric, Corian Wood, 66 H x 24 W x 98 D in. /167 H x 61 W x 248 D cm.

Titled after Paul Auster’s 1987 dystopian novel “In The Country Of Last Things”, the 2024 IN/SITU section at EXPO Chicago presents site-responsive and large-scale work in installation, painting, photography, sculpture, sound, and video by fifteen artists examining the precarious nature of contemporary life.

The section is rated this year by Amara Antilla, Independent Curator and Guest Curator at Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati). Anchored by Lucia Koch’s monumental installation of photographs depicting the void-like interiors of discarded cardboard containers, the exhibition explores themes of systemic economic failure, ecological instability, and political dissolution. Produced by an international cohort of artists, many of whom have ties the Midwest, the featured projects investigate collective unease during a fractured time, evoking revisionist histories, and moving beyond critique to imagine more just and sustainable futures.

Kiah Celeste produces sculptures and installations using materials associated with industrial manufacturing, such as steel, latex, rubber, stone, and fabric. She explores basic concepts in physics by arranging objects and environments to explain relationships between different types of matter.

These projects also pose metaphorical questions around the principles of balance and precarity. Leaning, stacking, or hanging, her works echo the strategies of postminimalism in their harnessing of gravity, tension, friction, and resistance.

In Aloof It All, four fabric-wrapped pieces of carpet-padding in shades of green are held in place by the tension created by an armature of corian. Leaning against one another, these elements achieve balance despite the great discrepancy in volume between their soft and hard components. The materials of our functional world are transformed into beings who nudge at the human experience; embracing intimately the onslaught of forceful pressure and tension. Through this precarious interaction, Celeste raises questions about the possibility of finding inner resilience and societal equilibrium.

EXPOCHICAGO, April 11-14th, 2024

Booth 276 - Editions + Books & IN/SITU Section

Navy Pier, 600 E Grand Ave, Chicago IL 60611

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