James
GATES
PERCIVAL
Unveiling of the new Sculpture by the Italian
Architect Alessandro Mendini
Alessandro Mendini’s Piet Wall, will be unveiled and officially dedicated during the International Poetry Festival at The Chicago Athenaeum Museum’s renovated historic Fulton Brewery Building in Galena, Illinois.
World famous, Alessandro Mendini was a radical Italian designer and architect who played an important part in the development of Italian design during the 1960s to the present.
Unfortunately, last month, Mendini passed away, and this is his last work while he was still a live.
Inspired by Piet Mondrain, Piet Wall is constructed of glass blocks produced and manufactured by the Italian company, Seves Glassblock, and is backlit by hundreds of LED lights that constantly change and shift in geometric patterns. The work has a brilliant transparency: lit by natural sunlight during the day; and illuminated by LED lights at night.
The languid sensuality of Mendini’s Piet Wall—recalls expressionist experimentation in light embodied in the works of James Turrell and Robert Irwin through the manipulation of light, colors, and shadows.
The work will be installed in the historic Fulton Brewery Building’s newly renovated courtyard, and is destined to be a major tourist and visitor attraction and a great legacy to this important philosopher, poet, thinker, and theorist.
Echos/Mirrors by Mary Livoni
Mary Livoni is a multi-media artist who lives and works in Chicago. She is currently working on a short film adaptation of the Stuart Dybek story "The Apprentice", a project partially funded by The Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, Illinois.
I began taking photographs of empty spaces and that led me towards creating symmetrical ones.
Symmetry slakes my craving for harmony; creating it is a current obsession.
Medium has always been fluid for me.
I like dream states; I draw from memories; that has been my constant as I have moved forward. What I choose to read has always been deeply inspirational to me, and I have made drawings, collages, and photographs that directly honor the works of poetry and prose that have sustained me as an artist.
Inspired by poets Louise Glück, Stuart Dybek, Li-Young Lee, Sylvia Plath, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Coover, e.e. cummings and our current Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith (just to name a few) I created a series of poetry broadsides; short video artworks that amplify a small section from the original work with layered metaphoric imagery and music.
Just as 19th century broadsides pasted on the city streets were meant to draw public interest towards reading a newly written poem or play, my short videos were created as markers in the vast universe of social media to point towards poetry.
Grateful to Christian Narkiewicz-Laine and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design for the opportunity to exhibit my work.
I would also like to thank The Poetry Foundation of Chicago, for creating the invaluable resource