EVENT: A Scratch Made In Heaven - Gallery Show Opening / Valentine's Party

Event: A Scratch Made In Heaven - Gallery Show Opening / Valentine's Party
Location: Heaven Gallery / 1550 N. Milwaukee 2nd Floor / Chicago, IL
Date: 02/11/2006

Review: Heaven Gallery resides in Chicago's hippest of hip hoods, Wicker Park, near the hippest record shop (Reckless Records) and Pan-Asian bar/music venue in hipster disguise (Rodan). Despite the influence of its neighbors, Heaven Gallery doesn't try to be anything it is not. Instead it stands as a space with art on the walls, interesting people on the floors and great noises in the air.

The reception on Saturday Night was a celebratory opening for the latest collection of art on the walls at Heaven as well as a ringing in of the upcoming day of love/lust/loneliness, Valentines Day. Currently, the visual collection consists of a show including several screen-print artists' work in progress. The minimal display includes a smattering of over twenty individuals' work. Many of the artist's sections include a few test prints and half-finished prints in contrast with the finished product. Some of the prints approach photo realism and to see the stages of production is not only beautiful, but inspiring. Some of the highlights of the show include Angee Lennard's miniature fabric-bound books containing separately screen-printed pages. Picking them up and flipping through the pages gave me an added feeling of intimacy not usually felt in art galleries. Local screenprinting legend Tony Fitzpatrick had a small piece titled "Charlotte" depicting a two dimensional Flower printed on tortilla beige paper in his unmistakable heavy-line style. Before noticing the piece's title, I gave it the name "Flower Tortilla" in my head. Check it out. It fits. My favorite pieces were those by Dolan Geiman, which each contained a small perched bird among atmospheric border printing. They reminded me of Joseph Cornell pieces, which may account for my attraction to them. Two pieces, one of a teddy bear floating among rooftops peaking from beneath a flood and another of sketchy building blocks with letters on them reminded me of the work of Albrecht Durer. Behind the DJ table hung a life-size print of a nude woman looking back at you over her shoulder. The skin texture was created with small cellular structures printed at even-spaced intervals giving the work a smooth skin texture from afar and a snake's scale texture up close.

Speaking of the DJ table, highlighting several musicians during the second half of the night, the massive jumble of cords, turntables, laptops and various other electronic devices made me wish that everything at Heaven Gallery was as interactive as Angee Lennard's books. Alas, I was only able to look on and scribble notes while the other musicians played.

First up was The Machinist, a young reserved looking man who alternated between sketchy and repetitive dance beats from a laptop and spoken word samples from a handheld cassette player which he manipulated with the fast forward and rewind buttons. The sound was akin to what I imagine video games on crystal meth sounding like while The Machinist's stage presence was that of a shy high schooler at a dance that would occasionally convulse and bite his bottom lip to the music in a spontaneous gettinintoit dance. The set was endearing and sonically interesting as it ended with a piece of dance music collaged together from bits and pieces of ska music.

Next up was Lord of the Yum Yum and his opening act (Yum Yum's equally maniacal alter-ego, The Fabulous Mr. Happy). His act was something I would expect to see only in a music lover's closed bedroom or a lunatic asylum with malfunctioning strait jackets. For his first song, he brought a large cardboard box equipped with a bass drum pedal and a toy tambourine on which he beat out a hilarious and brilliant stream-of-consciousness theme song for the gallery itself. When Lord of the Yum Yum took the stage, it consisted of the skinny bespectacled man dressed in a powder blue light yellow leisure suit armed with only a microphone and a looping pedal. The bulk of his set was made up of Yum Yum's free-form scatting and foot-stomping looped through the pedal and joined by his maniacal vocal renditions of popular songs by Guns N' Roses, Prince, Beethoven, The Eurythmics and others. Lord of the Yum Yum is something that must be witnessed by all fun-loving, music-loving and inhibition-tossing individuals at least once. Of course, after witnessing this crazed (yet ingenious) performance, I promise you will want more.

After Yum Yum came Dangergirl on the turntables, accompanied by Protman on a laptop. Dangergirl seemed nervous and hesitant during her performance, frequently flipping through her records, making tenative scratches on storybook read-along records and checking her notebook full of mix-notes (to many, a sign of a novice DJ. To me, a sign of a perfectionist and lover of musical collage). The set wore on the crowd as Dangergirl repeatedly announced that they were wasted. To her credit, each time a groove was found, the attendees in the gallery would dance a bit too heavily making her needles jump. I've been there, Dangergirl, and I felt your frustration. I would very much like to see Dangergirl perform again with a more stable stand for her instruments and less self-consciousness. Dangergirl (aka Mother Hubbard) is also a key player in the politically-minded dance-party website, Lifeduringwartime.net and will be hosting a monthly pro-femininity event at The Hideout called Pussy Galore beginning Feb. 23rd. All you Chicagoans should come check it out and dance the night away with a chance to win free sex toys and other good feelings.

The final act I witnessed was the local electronic-music workhorse, Quantazelle. Warning to all women out there: If your boyfriend is into electronic music on the obsessive, geeky level, you may want to watch him closely because he will develop an instant crush on Quantazelle upon witnessing her perform. As my friends pointed out to me repeatedly... she's cute and she knows how to sequence. Indeed. Quantazelle's set began with a glitched-out electronic rendition of what resembled The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (I too had some drinks in me by this time so don't quote me on that) and continued with several original compositions of electronic noise and danceable beats rocked from her laptop. Shortly, the rest of the gallery crowd were out on the floor, dancing and doing what resembled the Machinist's gettinintoit move while Quantazelle herself danced and smiled in genuine love for her music, lit solely by the glow of her computer screen. As most electronic music in Chicago is destined to do, Quantazelle's set began to venture a bit too close to house music for my tastes yet retained an emotional level that I couldn't turn from. Be sure to check out Quantazelle's website where you can learn about the gazillion other projects she has in the works such as her custom jewelry made from electronic components.

Throughout the night, I conversed with several strangers, friends and weirdos, realizing that I was among my ilk. The art, the music, the silliness and the craft table where people were busy making Valentine's Day boxes... it all added up to one great night. Though the Valentine's bash is over and done, the screenprints in progress will be on the walls of Heaven Gallery until March 11th. Be sure to check out these great works before they go back under the screen and are completed.

Rating: 4.75 / 5

Read my review of Quantazelle's album, Coaster, here: Link

Heaven Gallery: Link
The Machinist: Link
Lord Of The Yum Yum: Link
Dangergirl (aka Mother Hubbard / Life During Wartime): Link
Quantazelle: Link