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Pizza, Papercuts, and Weiwei

09/26/2014 By Ellen Beals Leave a Comment

Last week The Chicagoist published “The 20 Best Pizzas in the Chicago Area.” When I posted the link on FB, it got more “likes” than a lot of my posts.  Wednesday I went with two of my sisters to try a place on the list. It’s Flo & Santos, 1310 S. Wabash.  The Chicagoist was right, the pizza was good. We all wanted different ingredients on our pizza so we ordered the lunch special, which was an individual one-topping pizza and side salad. Delish.

After lunch we walked north on Wabash to 1104 S. Wabash to Columbia College’s s Glass Curtain Gallery (1st Floor) and the Center for Book and Paper Arts (2nd Floor) to see Papercuts, the exhibit that runs there until November 8. I’ll share with you some of this spectacular work.

After that we headed over to Adler Planetarium to see the Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads, which is a new installation of sculpture by Chines political artist Ai Weiwei.

I had to share with you the work by Jaq Belcher because it is called “Solace.” The photo does not capture how awesome this is; to give you an idea, there are 12,960 “seeds” cut from the paper.

 

Picture of "Solace" by Jaq Belcher (photo © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014)
Close-up pf "bhakti 2009" by Jaq Belcher (photo © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014)
"Gates of Steel" by Lauren Scanlon (photo © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014)

Artist Lauren Scanlon takes the pages from a romance novel, sews them together with gold thread and then hand-cuts a design into the paper.  As with all the photos, this does not show enough of the detail and fine work that went into this creation.

Artist Reni Gower’s works are untitled and the identifying tag says: “White/gold 2010, acrylic and hand cut paper.”

Papercut "White/gold 2010" by Reni Gower © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014

One of the largest works is titled “Invisible City” by Béatrice Coron. In the first photo you can see the scale of it (that’s my sister walking) and the second photo is a closeup that show the intricate workmanship.

Long look at "Invisble City" by Béatrice Coron (photo © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014)
Close-up of Detail in "Invisble City" by Béatrice Coron (Photo © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014)

Internationally acclaimed Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has reinterpreted the twelve bronze animal heads representing the traditional Chinese zodiac that once adorned the famed fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing. Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads is the artist’s first major public sculpture project. Today the Adler Planetarium in Chicago is the fourteenth venue to host the Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze series.  The statues will be here for a year.

I am a Monkey so that’s the first statue I checked out, and I was sad to see the monkey was already crying bird poop tears.  When you look at the Rooster, you can see the level of detail in each statue–truly beautiful.

Monkey, part of Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads by Ai Weiwei (photo © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014)
Rooster, part of Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads by Ai Weiwei © Ellen Wade Beals, 2014

 

Wishing you a creative and happy weekend.

Peace, love, and solace

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Ai Weiwei, Beatrice Coron, Center for Book and Paper Arts, Chicago, Chinese zodiac, Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads, Columbia College, Ellen Wade Beals, Flo & Santos, Glass Curtain Gallery, Jaq Belcher, Lauren Scanlon, Papercuts, Photography, pizza, Reni Gower, Solace, Solace in So Many Words, Weighed Words

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