Artists’ Salon
Fevered Archives: 30 years of comics from the not-so-mixed-up files of Alison Bechdel
On April 5, 2012 from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at the University of Chicago hosted an opening reception for "Fevered Archives: 30 years of comics from the not-so-mixed-up files of Alison Bechdel" with over 150 people in attendance. Bechdel's work is currently on display throughout the Center building at 5733 South University Avenue, Chicago on the University of Chicago campus (beginning in the first floor lounge, continuing up the stairwell to the third floor lounge.) This marks the inaugural year of the Artists' Salon project, which brings artists whose work meditates on sexuality and gender to the Center to mount temporary exhibitions.
We are very pleased to offer this exhibit of comics work by the world-famous cartoonist Bechdel, creator of the long-running serial strip Dykes to Watch Out For and the graphic memoirs Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006) and Are You My Mother? (forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin in May 2012). The work spans her career and includes pages from her new as yet unreleased book. Bechdel is in residence at the University of Chicago for Spring quarter 2012 as a Mellon Residential Fellow for Arts Practice and Scholarship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. Bechdel and Hillary Chute from the English Department are also co-teaching a CSGS course titled "Lines of Transmission: Comics and Autobiography," which, in the spirit of the conversations we hope to create with the Artists' Salon, mixes history, theory, and arts practice.
The exhibit is free and open to the public. Hours are Mon-Fri, 9 am - 5 pm through May 18, 2012.
The Artists' Salon at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality is a new initiative that seeks to showcase artists creating innovative work focusing-in diverse ways, and in diverse media-on gender and sexuality. The Artists' Salon provides the Center with a serious and thought-provoking exhibition gallery space where artwork is on display for students, faculty, and artists alike to enjoy and discuss together. The Artists' Salon will exhibit work from both established artists and from up and coming artists in the Chicago area and elsewhere. By making the Center a place to interact with art on campus, we also hope to start conversations about feminist art and artmaking with members of the vital Chicago art community outside of campus, creating connections between students, faculty, and practitioners around issues of gender and sexuality.
Hillary Chute, English professor and Director of CSGS' Artists Salon interviews cartoonist Alison Bechdel:
http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/hillary_chute_interviews_alison_bechdel
Alison Bechdel's website and blog:
http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/about
Professor Hillary Chute, director of the Artists' Salon project, can be contacted at:
chute@uchicago.edu
http://english.uchicago.edu/faculty/chute
On Bechdel and Chute's Mellon Residential Fellowship for Arts Practice and Scholarship:
http://arts.uchicago.edu/about/mellonfellows.shtml
Hillary Chute on Alison Bechdel in the Village Voice:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-07-04/books/gothic-revival/