Temporary and pragmatic objects and structures, such as scaffolding, are secondary and subservient to what are traditionally seen as more permanent objects and structures. Street-side images, such as advertising, illuminate and support future permanent objects and structures. Scaffolding and public advertising, both ancillary and complementary forms, oftentimes communicate the sale, construction, or restoration of future structures, to benefit a select few. But what if such objects are brought together and used as a means to their own collective end? When dysfunctional in this way, these objects become global signifiers, presenting a reflection, simultaneously projecting the present and the present as the future. What does this action reflect back onto the objects’ usual contexts when they are the foundation and purpose of their own, existing only for themselves?

Ayesha Singh and Misael Soto have made it their mutual concern to see how far these inquiries can lead them when simultaneously concerned locally and globally. Covering the entire height and width of the facade of ACRE Projects’ Pilsen home, their public installation will deviate passersby viewpoints, disrupt and divert foot traffic along the sidewalk, and be the catalyst for conversation birthed from impermanence, which hopes to lead towards shared ideas of stability.

Ayesha Singh

Born in New Delhi (1990), Ayesha Singh is currently based in Chicago pursuing an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Singh graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2013). Primarily working in sculpture, photography and installation, she explores the potential for two-dimensional processes to be constructed as three-dimensional forms. With an interest in the creation of new spaces in pre-existing architecture, Singh uses scale to investigate the malleability of space- in both its physical and illusionary manifestations, and the works draw attention to the way viewers occupy it. Her work has been exhibited widely including exhibitions in London, Cambridge, Brazil, Chicago and New Delhi. Recently at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefeild, UK, the Hyde Park Art Centre in Chicago, the India Art Fair, the Gujral Foundation and the Delhi Photo Festival at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, amongst others, and given talks at Sculpture Dialogues at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Creative Community at the Hidden Gallery, New Delhi.

Rooted in a contextual- and site-specific investigation of shared environments and experience, their artistic and curatorial practice explores ephemeral and transcendental possibilities via a concise disruption and manipulation of existing systems. Pointing to truths within the equivocal is foundational and the disturbance of presumed permanence is a core goal. As Brechtian subversions of contextually associated everyday objects, actions, and behaviors, works involve object-based interventions and action-based tasks, a distinction that blurs and coalesces from project to project. The novelty of these situations and the vulnerability required from viewers aligns their attention on the present and reveals circumstantial truths.

Misael Soto

Born in Puerto Rico (1986), Misael Soto is currently based in Chicago pursuing an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Misael graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors Degree in Art History from Florida Atlantic University (2008) and has shown at MCA Chicago, Open Engagement 2015, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Material Art Fair in Mexico City, David Castillo Gallery in Miami, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, and Young at Art Museum in Davie, Florida, amongst others, and participated in the ACRE Residency Program in Steuben, WI and HomeBase Project's HB Build Artist-in-Residence program in Berlin.

 

Press Release

Opening Reception:

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ACRE Projects
2439 S Oakley Ave
Chicago , IL 60608

Wheelchair Accessible

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