Sing a Funeral Song
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
March 5, 2016 - March 26, 2016
Consisting of painting, installation, and projected video, the work in Sing a Funeral Song addresses Caponigro’s ongoing interest in cycles and the fine line between protection and suffocation. A pattern painted on the glass windows cast shadows that, depending on the time of day, interfere with the projected video. Accessible materials, including foliage, prayer cards, and landscaping lights, are altered and combined to disrupt and complicate their original meaning. By setting up delicate situations, then allowing them to transform organically, the work speaks to the futility of attempting to alter situations and circumstances that are truly out of our control. Sing a Funeral Song featured a closing reading with Amaranta Isyemille Lara and Diana Harper on March 26.
Before receiving her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Jessica Caponigro attended Bryn Mawr College where she earned her BA in the History of Art. In her work, Caponigro explores ideas of restriction through repetition, reproduction, and accessibility. She has taught classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Olive Harvey College, and currently teaches studio and academic classes at Harold Washington College. She has exhibited work at the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago Cultural Center, and the Highland Park Art Center. Her work is in the permanent collections at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, California State Long Beach and the Joan Flasch Artists’ Books Collection. She is a member of the feminist art collectives W.I.T.C.H. and Tracers, and frequently participates in workshops, most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and NYU Florence. For additional info and images of her work, please visit jessicacaponigro.com.
Sing a Funeral Song Exhibition Guide (PDF)
Singing Songs of Loss, A Review of Jessica Caponigro at Roman Susan | Newcity - March 21, 2016
Jessica Caponigro, Sing a Funeral Song at Roman Susan | Third Coast Review - March 10, 2016