Restless: A Visual Essay
There is an ancient desire to imbue history with meaning, to create associative landmarks that map out psychic geography. Through the idiosyncratic collection of objects, one can feel constellations of meaning, plotted out with old things one dare not throw away. To keep these things is preserve the sentiments of the past, a dyke against the erosion of memory for in the absence of memory there is a fear that something might as well have never happened. Yet also, it these little monuments of history, bundles and bags of old leaves, taking up space in various closets, underneath beds, on bookshelves or in boxes in attics, that create a sense of restlessness, mediating new instants such that it sometimes feels impossible to escape oneself. In "Restless," Shannon Stratton displays an odd and random assortment of other people's trappings, whether they are guilty accumulations of plastic inhalers, kotex sleeves, or bottles of ground from sacred places, extensive assortments of yarn, old buttons or bottle corks. In the landscape of these objects it is difficult to achieve the source of a sound installation booming out of an old record player.
Shannon Stratton worked for a few years as both a free-lance and chain-store employed display technician before attending art school to earn a BFA, MFA and then an MAAH. She made art, started a not-for-profit, curated some stuff, wrote some stuff, taught some stuff, gave a few talks, collaborated on doing-things. In unpacking her own crowded closet, and perhaps as a nod to her own interminable restlessness, Stratton has returned to her roots and is admitting to, or coming to terms with, her deep desire to arrange things for others.
In conjunction with the show, a limited edition DIY publication, edited by Chaz Reetz-Laiolo, will be available with work by: David Snyder, Peter Orner, Julio, Benjamin Spencer, Sarah Levine, Lauren Pretner and Chaz Reetz-Laiolo.
Restless was on exhibition at The Green Lantern April 18th - May 17th, 2008 in Chicago, IL.
It was reviewed in TimeOut Chicago by Michelle Grabner and Artforum Online by Lori Waxman for Critics Picks, 04.28.08.
