Without Within
Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N Ravenswood, Chicago IL
May 17, 2019 - August 18, 2019
Found, arranged, abstracted, and transformed, Without Within is a two person exhibition with a new sound installation commissioned from Norman W. Long and assembled ceramic sculptures by Mie Kongo, curated by Ruth Hodgins. Inspired by observations and discovery from their surrounding environments, both artists play with altering perceptions using inspiration from found materials and field recordings. From metal and porcelain to electro-acoustic composition, each artist transforms the randomness and chance inherent to our everyday lived experiences into ordered, composed forms that meditate on memory, scale, shape, and sound. Over the course of the exhibition, each month a performance will activate the space, bringing together other artists who use sound and moving image in relation to the works on view.
Sound Walk Sunday, June 30 at 3PM with Norman W. Long, Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson and Sara Zalek
Performance Sunday, July 21 at 3PM with Norman W. Long, Andrew Clinkman and Xris Espinoza
Screening Thursday, August 1 at 7 PM with a sound performance by Brett Naucke, Natalie Chami and Whitney Johnson, and moving image works by Manuela De Laborde, Deborah Stratman
Mie Kongo grew up in the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan and now lives and works in Evanston IL, where she makes multidisciplinary work: ceramic sculptures & installations, 2D work and porcelain designed objects. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including recent exhibitions at Seerveld Gallery at Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights IL, Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago IL, Arts and Literature Laboratory, Madison WI, 4th Ward Project Space, Chicago IL, Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington IN, Cleve Carney Art Gallery, Glen Ellyn IL, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL. Kongo has been an artist in residence at Shigaraki Ceramics Cultural Park, Shiga, Japan, European Keramic Work Center, ‘sHertogenbosch, Netherland, “Intonation” Deidesheim, Germany. She received BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She is Adjunct Associate Professor in Ceramics department at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For more information, please visit miekongo.com.
Norman W. Long (b. 1973, Chicago, IL) is a sound artist/designer/composer based in Chicago, IL. His current work focuses on sound art production within the larger context of landscape. He has exhibited and/or performed in galleries in Chicago, Ithaca, New York, London, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The processes involved in his practice lie within the area of field recording, electro-acoustic composition and dub technique. His art/studio practice involves gardening, collecting, performing and recording to create objects, environments, situations in which the artist and audience are engaged in a dialogue about memory, space, value, silence and the invisible. It is his desire that his practice offers us a space to consider our relationship to sound via social, ecological structures, our interiority, and to affirm our existence. To hear work online, please visit soundcloud.com/normanlong and normanwlong.bandcamp.com.
Ruth Hodgins is a board member for Roman Susan Art Foundation, and works as Bentson Archivist/Assistant Curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, where she oversees the care, use, and scholarship of the historic Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. As curator for Moving Image events, Ruth has contributed to a range of events and exhibitions including, Metaphors on Vision by Brakhage, Patrick Staff, and “I Am Not a Filmmaker”: The Films of Marcel Broodthaers, Expanding the Frame series, Sound for Silents: Film and Music on the Walker Hillside, and co-curator for the exhibition Platforms: Collection and Commissions. From 2013 to 2016 Ruth was the Distribution Manager at the Video Data Bank at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Experimental Sound Studio is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to artistic evolution and the creative exploration of sound. As an international hub for sonic experimentation, ESS nurtures artists, heralds new works, and builds a broad, supportive community of makers, enthusiasts, and creative partners through production, presentation, education, and preservation. For more information, please visit ess.org.
Norman W. Long performance May 17, 2019
Norman W. Long, Andrew Clinkman, Xris Espinoza performance July 21, 2019
Mie Kongo and Norman W. Long at the Experimental Sound Studio | Paragon Book Gallery - July 2, 2019
Arranging, Abstracting, and Transforming at ESS | Sixty Inches From Center - June 28, 2019
Without Within at Experimental Sound Studio | Bad at Sports - May 16, 2019