THE WAY THE MYSTIC SEES - 2019
The Way the Mystic Sees, installation views at Weinberg/Newton Gallery, 2019; photography by Evan Jenkins
Curator’s Note
When contemplating technology and surveillance today, my thoughts go to developing means to defy being captured. How do we obscure ourselves – our bodies and their movements, our faces and their intentions? To obscure not necessarily in order to conceal, but, sometimes oppositely, in order to reveal social potencies and cultural expressions – in and for the public. How do we challenge an image to become more than a tool to merely identify a person in this world? The artists I am in dialogue with have given shape to these concerns in a more profound way than I can articulate. Their artworks offer entry points for topics including the motivations of security and types of self-presentation beyond the optical.
— Nabiha Khan-Giordano
Public Programs
Exhibition Dates
Sep 6–Dec 14, 2019
Opening Reception
Sep 6, 2019, 5–8PM
Performance
Sep 10, 2019, 6–7PM
Marilyn Volkman performs NEO- CRAFT: A Prelude to Ritual-tech. NEO- CRAFT is a fully integrated system of philosophical thinking tools allowing art producers to proactively engage with systems of power by utilizing expressive potential for personal and social gain. The project creates a range of experiences for individual artists and community members through live seminars, informational videos, audio guides, workbooks and takeaway objects. In a web of defamiliarized coordinates, these are, if anything, time-tested residual strategies for self-realization.
Discussion
Oct 2, 2019, 5:30–6:30PM
Join Human Rights Watch, the Chicago Community Bond Fund, and the Illinois Justice Project for a panel discussion to expose and elucidate algorithm based pre-trial risk assessment tools and their role in national and regional bond reform debate. Panelists include John Raphling, Senior Researcher on Criminal Justice, Human Rights Watch; Sharlyn Grace, Exective Director, Chicago Community Bond Fund; Sharone Mitchell Jr, Deputy Director, Illinois Justice Project; Antonio Gutierrez, OCAD from Organized Communities Against Deportations; moderated by Laura S Washington, In These Times Contributing Editor, Columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and political analyst for ABC 7-Chicago.
Performance
Oct 17, 2019, 6–7PM
Maryam Taghavi presents Anatomy of a Fall, a performance lecture that reconstructs elements of a photograph through writing, sound, and movement. This live performance sets out to read beyond what the image immediately represents, and by doing so gives shape to a sequence of events that are absent yet connected. By using technology retroactively, this performance searches for the imaginary possession of the past and the consequences of its narratives for the present.
EXPO Chicago
Oct 27, 2019, 6–8PM
Maryam Taghavi: A Flight into the Abyss is a meditation on a single historical photograph from September 1984 taken during a track and field training session at the Shiroudi Sports Complex in Tehran. In the image, the athlete is forever suspended mid-flight — suddenly implicated and caught in the political tension of the Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980 and continued for eight years.
This offsite program for The Way the Mystic Sees is located at Navy Pier Festival Hall, 600 East Grand Avenue | Booth 467, Chicago, IL 60611.
Film Screening
Dec 5, 2019, 6–8PM
Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World follows the revolutionary rise of the “citizen investigative journalist” collective known as Bellingcat, dedicated to redefining breaking news by exploring the promise of open source investigation. In the last decade and increasingly, Human Rights Watch is indeed harnessing technology, exposing violations remotely and in near real time, through geospatial and data analysis. Attendees are invited to stay after the screening for a discussion with Emma Daly, Deputy Director for Media, Human Rights Watch, and Aric Toler, Bellingcat investigator.
Seminar
Dec 7, 2019, 10AM–5PM
Write to Change the World with The OpEd Project is a highly interactive day-long seminar will challenge you to think more carefully and more expansively about your knowledge and experience, and why it matters. We will explore the source of credibility; the patterns and elements of powerful evidence-based argument; the difference between being “right” and being effective; how to preach beyond the choir; and how to think bigger — so that we can have greater influence and value in the world. You will emerge with a powerful argument for an idea or cause you believe in, and a network of high-level mentors.
Press
Bad at Sports
Chicago Gallery News
The Columbia Chronicle
Newcity
Newcity Top 5 of 2016
Partner
Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate human rights abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to secure justice in nearly 100 countries worldwide.