Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking
Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking - Open Archive Sessions at Hyde Park Art Center
April 15-26, 2024 at HPAC’s Studio # 6
The Open Archive Sessions will feature the work of Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist Sandra Binion, offering visitors a rare, in-depth, personal engagement with the artist and the curator and archivist Mariana Mejía. During this two-week residency, attendees will have the opportunity to handle original documents, photos, correspondence, sketches, performance props, scripts, scores, and notebooks that reveal Binion’s detailed working process and her collaborations with notable artists including musicians Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Tatsu Aoki, Leroy Jenkins, and Harrison Bankhead; performer Eponine Cuervo Moll; filmmaker Amos Poe; photographer Dirk Bakker; and architect Marc Dilet. These sessions invite fellow artists, community residents, and students to explore, engage, question, and discuss artistic process across disciplines with the artist in person. In addition, individuals are welcome to make one-on-one appointments to ensure accessibility to all who are interested.
Sandra Binion’s archive conveys the trajectory of her fifty-year career from her early stages as a solo performance artist in the mid-1970s through her expansion into installation, video, sound, photography, painting, scent, and literature that continues unabated. It traces her path through many cities in the US, Europe, and Japan over five decades and the many encounters with the artists and communities that have shaped her acute sensibility.
The Open Archive Sessions at HPAC complement Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking, a retrospective exhibition at Experimental Sound Studio and a performance series at various Chicago venues, taking place April 12 - June 9, 2024. For a complete schedule of exhibition hours and performances, please click here.
Open Archive Exploration & Response Sessions by appointment
Each 2-hour session is an opportunity to engage in a close examination of Binion’s archive and to leave creative responses. The archivist and artist will be present.
Daily from 1:30–4:00, except Thursdays.
RSVP sandra.binion.studio@gmail.com
Open Archive Walk-ins
This is a self-guided exploration of Binion’s archive in the company of the archivist.
Daily from 10:00–12:30, except Thursdays.
Open Archive Special Sessions
Saturday, April 20, 12:00–2:00
Bruce Jenkins — film historian and professor in the Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will screen Ascending Descending, Binion’s 1978 collaboration with filmmaker Amos Poe and its relationship to 1970s and 1980s experimental film.
Amos Poe — filmmaker will be present by zoom.
Monday, April 22, 1:30–3:30
Christopher M. Reeves — art historian and lecturer, School of the Art Institute of Chicago will probe Binion’s archive with a focus on the ephemeral nature of performance and the issues around its documentation.
Friday, April 26, 1:30-3:30
Ryan Dohoney — musicologist and Professor, Northwestern University will discuss Binion’s interactions with musicians and composers in the US and Europe.
For visits outside this schedule, please set up an appointment at sandra.binion.studio@gmail.com