SHOW:  CURRENT  <----------> ARCHIVE <----------> WRITING <---------->All


INTERLOCKING SINGLE-MODE 21- STRAND FIBER OPTIC CABLE

Video program curated by Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter for Chicago Artists Coalition at EXPO Chicago

2015
︎︎︎Exhibition program (link)

When manufacturing fiber optic cable, filaments of plastic-coated glass strands are bundled in concentric helical layers around a central core: 12, 24, 48 (or more) exquisitely thin mile-long strands piled adjacent to each other, transmitting information encoded as pulses of light — tightly bound together yet never, quite, touching.

A curation within a curation, INTERLOCKING SINGLE-MODE 21-STRAND FIBER OPTIC CABLE is a series of well-timed interjections, interludes and interlocutions. Projected in the dark interior of a windowless telecom equipment shelter, built by Marissa Lee Benedict & David Rueter to screen their video “Dark Fiber” — a piece curated by Jacob Proctor for the Chicago Artist’s Coalition’s Booth #121 at EXPO Chicago 2015 — the 21 short videos and films being shown are quiet choreographies and sublime train-wrecks of the mundane and the fantastical.

On the hour, each hour, while EXPO Chicago is open to the public (11 AM-7 PM; Friday September 18th, Saturday September 19th, and Sunday September 20th), “Dark Fiber” will pause in its loop and jump into the parallel universes of Kayla Anderson, Jeffery Michael Austin, Ruth Ann (Nina Barnett & Robyn Nesbitt), Melika Bass, Sarah Belknap & Joseph Belknap, Rashayla Marie Brown, Hope Esser, Sebura&Gartelmann, Lori Felker, Alejandro Figueredo Díaz-Perera, Snow Yunxue Fu, Chido Johnson, Ben Moren, Johana Moscoso, Stefanie Motta, Andrew Rosinski, Dan Paz, Phil Peters, Sanaz Sohrabi, Casey Smallwood, and Hyounsang Yoo.

The twenty-four selected artists have, over the past five years, participated in CAC’s various residency and exhibition programs (BOLT Residency, HATCH Projects, and the Midwest Artist Exchange), and are currently living and working across the nation and around the globe. Special thanks to all the artists who have so generously agreed to screen their work; to Teresa E. Silva (Director of Exhibitions & Residencies, Chicago Artists Coalition); and to Jacob Proctor (Curator, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, the University of Chicago).