A Look At Chaos Shows This To Be True

COLLABORATIVE ARTISTS STATEMENT

"A Look at Chaos Shows This to be True" is the title of a current collaborative project between sculptor Suzanne Cohan-Lange, media artist Niki Nolin and poet Sherry Antonini. The work is a sculpture/video/poetry installation that includes three life-size carved and assembled caryatids supporting three video monitors. While best known, in Chicago, as the pillar-like women who hold up the Museum of Science and Industry, the history of caryatids is rich and fascinating. As far back as 3000 BC, these ancient priestesses of Artemis represented the pillars of wisdom or "mothers" of society. In our research, the original priestesses used dance in their devotion. Their dance movements were symbolic of the work women do to continually and endlessly repair and rebuild civilization.

This collaboration presents a version of the caryatids that is both historically referential and contemporary. Individually, the sculptures are constructed of wood, metal or paper, representing the primary materials used throughout various stages of more recent civilization. Video monitors incorporated into each sculpture allow for the addition of sound and moving images, providing evocative narrative elements. Women's dance movements, combined with gestures signifying women's tasks, create a repeating rhythm in composition with ambient sound and spoken word. Through the layering of voices, the text includes metaphorical allusions in addition to the specific naming of events and places over the course of time where the work of women-- to pick up the pieces and move on-- was critical to recovery, healing and growth. The synthesis of materials and thematic levels of information in this installation, as well as the collaborative approach taken to make each piece complete, is intended to point to our exploration of the ancient caryatids while also continuing to provide a lyrical echoing of women's voices of the past, present and, even, of the future.