Gallery_Chicago

Chicago Specimens (Water and Air) | 52” x 50”

1995 - Plastic sacks filled with water, computer generated text on acetate which gives numerous fragments of information about the Chicago River, an engineering marvel, and Lake Michigan. The blue of the map pins and the red of the seal on the plastic sack are the colors of the city’s flag. The flask contains text referring to the environmental dangers of urban air.

Whereas the scientist creates from the accumulation and synthesis of preexisting data, the artist employs the random imagination of creation. In science, skepticism combined with empirical evidence results in an issue of proof which is constantly subjected to further scrutiny. Chicago Specimens is an illusion, the stuff that art is made of. The artist asks her audience to suspend disbelief and accept the presented evidence at face value. Conceived in Chicago and created in São Paulo, the work combines both idea and material from two distant environments.

Mary Dritschel retains all rights to her art and installations shown on this website. No work may be copied or used in any shape or form without prior consent. Copyright 2004 Mary Dritschel. Site design: Copyright 2004 True Ideas, Inc.