Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking
The French Heritage Society and Galerie Fledermaus invite you to a live performance of Sandra Binion’s Homage à Odilon Redon.
Performed by Tara Aisha Willis
Flowers by Vince Phan
Homage à Odilon Redon was conceived and performed by Sandra Binion in 1979 in Los Angeles, and subsequently featured prominently in High Performance magazine. It was a provocative yet subtle work of performance art, in which Binion stood completely still for two hours after being covered entirely in fresh flowers by artist and floral designer Calvin Charman. The woman covered in flowers was a realization of French symbolist artist Odilon Redon’s (1840-1916) concept of the fille-fleur. In this re-staging of the work under Binion’s direction, performer Tara Aisha Willis will be covered with fresh flowers by artist Vince Phan and stand immobile for one hour, emulating a still-life painting and at the same time projecting power as she holds her ground.
Thursday, June 6, 2024
6–8 pm
$50 per person
Hors-d'œuvres and drinks will be served.
Proceeds from this event will support a Chicago-Midwest Educational Grant from the French Heritage Society (FHS). Each year, FHS sends around 24 students from universities in France and the U.S. across the Atlantic for internships at esteemed organizations.
Galerie Fledermaus
2753 W. Fullerton Avenue
(CTA Blue Line to California, 4-minute walk)
Chicago, Illinois 60647
312.617.8711
To purchase tickets by phone or to make a tax-deductible donation, please contact Benjamin Wells, FHS Programs & Membership Officer at 212.759.6846, ext. 201.
Homage à Odilon Redon is presented as part of the exhibition Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking, taking place at Experimental Sound Studio and throughout Chicago from April 12 - June 9, 2024. CLICK HERE for complete information or visit www.sandrabinion.com.
French Heritage Society (FHS) is an American nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect the French architectural and cultural legacy in France and the United States through preservation, education and the cultivation of French-American friendship.
Galerie Fledermaus embraces the idea that art has been and remains a conduit to contemplate and cherish the mysteries of life. Bridging past and present, their exhibitions juxtapose modern masters with contemporary artists and speak to a continuum of craft and content.
Sandra Binion is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. From her early work as a solo performance artist in the mid-1970s, her work expanded into multimedia installations incorporating video, sound, photography, painting, sculpture, and scent in dialogue with literature, architecture, and historical references. She studied visual art, theater, ballet, and filmmaking, all of which have contributed to her unique and highly personal artistic practice. During her career she has collaborated with composers, musicians, visual artists, photographers, performers, filmmakers, and architects. Among these are Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Leroy Jenkins, Tatsu Aoki, Harrison Bankhead, Eponine Cuervo Moll, Amos Poe, Dirk Bakker, Marc Dilet, and many others. Her work has been presented in festivals, museums, galleries, theaters, and public spaces in the US, Europe, and Japan.
Tara Aisha Willis is a dance artist, independent curator, and writer. Currently she is curator-in-residence at EMPAC (Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and lecturer in theater and performance studies at the University of Chicago. Her writing has appeared in publications by the Getty Research Institute, Danspace Project, Center for Book Arts, University of Illinois Press, Wendy’s Subway, and Soberscove Press and in The Black Scholar, Women & Performance, Performance Research, Brooklyn Rail, and Movement Research Performance Journal. She has performed for Will Rawls, Jasmine Hearn, devynn emory, Kim Brandt, Yanira Castro, Paulina Olowska, Anna Sperber, and others.
Vince Phan is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in sculpture and floral installation. He has been a practicing artist for twelve years in the US as a “resident alien,” and in response he makes physical objects and cultivates plants to ground himself and imagine a future in a foreign land that has become his home. He earned his MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During his undergraduate and graduate studies, he was awarded several fellowships including the Eldon Danhausen Fellowship in Sculpture, the Abakanowicz Graduate Fellowship, and the Pritzker Fellowship. He has exhibited at Comfort Station, Co-Prosperity, and the University of Chicago.