SITE SPECIFIC

Sing a Funeral Song addresses the artist’s ongoing interest in cycles and the fine line between protection and suffocation. A pattern painted on the glass windows cast shadows that, depending on the time of day, interfere with the projected video. Accessible materials, including foliage, prayer cards, and landscaping lights, are altered and combined to disrupt and complicate their original meaning. By setting up delicate situations, then allowing them to transform organically, the work speaks to the futility of attempting to alter situations and circumstances that are truly out of our control. Roman Susan

Settle Down is a solo exhibition of installation and sculptural works by Chicago-based artist Vin Caponigro. Their work for Lease Agreement is site-specific: through pattern, as is found in her hand-printed wallpaper installation, it physically references the formal elements found in the house while in essence it locates the psychological tensions found in a well-lived space. Caponigro’s minimal installations containing fluorite crystals, moss, astroturf, and rocks function as domestic signs that have been denied their normal role in order to expose the presences and absences found therein. Just as Bachelard defines Topoanalysis as the “systematic psychological study of the sites of our intimate lives” through lyrical philosophy in The Poetics of Space, Caponigro finds their analytic voice in the poetry of the physical object and geometry of living. Lease Agreement

Black Damp examines the patterns and narrative situations translated by the film adaptation of a particular piece of literature. For example, DH Lawrence’s classic Sons and Lovers is partially responsible for some of these pieces, as they eclipse specific scenes and become more about the integral life experiences of the characters, as well as those of both the audience and the artist. The literal definition of the term “black damp” is “a non-explosive mine gas that cannot support life or flame.” Had one read Lawrence’s text or had an in-depth conversation with Caponigro about their upbringing and the historical context of the town in which they were raised, the underlying themes would be obviously parallel. Their deliberate choices affect the viewer’s perception, providing that each individual who encounters it has a somewhat communal, but uniquely distinct experience. Johalla Projects