Review: "Slow Dance" At ACRE Projects

"Slow Dance," an exhibition of new work by EJ Hill and Matt Austin opened this weekend at ACRE Projects in Pilsen. ACRE Projects is an incubator and artist residency for emerging artists. The show was comprised of archival pigment prints, charcoal wall drawings, and the release of their collaborative publication “/”, a 90-page book of drawings, writing and photographs.

“/” had an immediately intimate feel to it, as if flipping through a beautiful journal. It felt almost voyeuristic; a window into someone else’s thoughts. The book begins and ends with contradictory and complimentary lists of verbs, echoing the theme of the show. Austin and Hill each created the pieces for their individual halves of the book separately, but you see unintentionally common themes throughout. There is a raw vulnerability present in the combination of poetry, sharing of experiences, photographs and drawings...