You're Invited to Attend and Participate in Unique Biennial Exhibition Saturday
April 17, 2007
Also: 2007 DePauw Biennial, February 14 - May 10; 'Kevin McCarty: I'm Not Like You,' January 29 - May 10
April 17, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. - "Projects Commissioned for the 2007 DePauw Biennial," an exhibition featuring the work of contemporary artists based in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, will take place in a series of exciting events scheduled for Saturday, April 21, at DePauw University. Audiences can enjoy a live performance of a radio play, a parade featuring an aluminum carpet, and a hot air balloon, among the unique offerings. (at left: Temporary Services, Binder Archives, Weimar, Germany)
The 2007 DePauw Biennial explores richly divergent approaches to art-making in which site-specific projects -- several staged or installed outside of the gallery and requiring the participation of the audience as “co-producers” -- is intended to be not only an exhibition, but a dynamic and experiential forum for cultural production. The Biennial and its related projects explore and redefine the relationship between audience and cultural institution, and artist and audience, and test new structures of 
collaboration and venues for the presentation of innovative work.
Events scheduled for this Saturday include: Out on the Weekend: The Taking of Leisure Mountain, a radio play created by Academy Records, SIMPARCH and Chris Vorhees, will be performed live with a cast and crew composed of DePauw students at 4 p.m. The play will be broadcast live on WGRE (91.5 FM and online), DePauw’s student-run radio station, and will take place inside Leisure Mountain, a large sculptural work constructed from hundreds of vintage aluminum lawn chairs that is located in the rear courtyard of the Richard E. Peeler Art Center. A podcast will be available following the event and can be accessed by clicking here. (above right: Academy Records, The Weeping Willow and the Burning Flame, 2004))
Immediately following the radio play, Biggest Temporary Gang Ever, an artist collective composed of Chicago-based artist collectives Biggest Fags Ever (Zena Sakowski and Rob Kelly), Temporary Services (Brett Bloom, Marc Fischer and Salem Collo-Julin) and ausgang (Melinda Fries), with the help of many volunteers, will lead the parade of a carpet constructed from 6,000 aluminum cans from the Peeler Art Center across Jackson Street to McKeen Field. Once at the site, the artists will host a public BBQ, followed by the launching of a large hot air balloon constructed from plastic tarps. A 12-page newspaper
produced by the members of Biggest Temporary Gang Ever for the 2007 DePauw Biennial, featuring instructions for making your own newspaper, illustrations of inventions made by Croatian children, details on how to run a free store, and an interview with Paul Mahern of the Indiana hardcore punk band Zero Boys, will also be available.
Academy Records is a collaborative endeavor between Chicago-based artist Stephen Lacy and a continually revolving group of musicians, writers and visual artists. Their productions, which include vinyl records, compact discs, publications, concerts, performances and exhibitions, are based on the idea of system-specificity. (at left: Academy Records, SIMPARCH and Chris Vorhees, Leisure Mountain, 2007; commissioned for the 2007 DePauw Biennial)
SIMPARCH is an artist collaborative group -- organized and maintained by Matt Lynch and Steven Badgett -- that produces works operating on the borders of architecture, design, and popular culture. Creating large-scale works that take into account the specificities and histories of a given site, SIMPARCH highlights how popular iconographies and artistic languages and concerns intersect. Uniting all of SIMPARCH’s projects is an overarching concern for the work's social potential. Ultimately acting as sites for communal interaction -- and social exchange, these structures infuse the languages of art and architecture with a desire to connect a diverse range of participants.
Temporary Services is an artist collective based in Chicago
who champions public projects that are temporary, ephemeral, or that operate outside of conventional or officially sanctioned categories of public expression. They have been collaborating on art projects, public events, publications, and exhibitions since 1998.
Melinda Fries is an artist and filmmaker currently living and working in Chicago. Since 1998 she has been the creator/curator of ausgang.com, an online exploration and travel guide of ephemeral experiences, stories, and collections.
Rob Kelly and Zena Sakowski lead Biggest Fags Ever, an artist group whose work takes the form of spontaneous, unannounced and ephemeral events staged for the people that live in their Chicago neighborhood of Bridgeport.
Other artists and artist groups/collectives in the 2007 DePauw Biennial include: CarianaCarianne, Matt Coors, Paul Coors, Ken Fandell, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Kevin Hamilton, Terence Hannum, Mark Harris, Stuart Hyatt, Stephen Irwin, Andrew Loughnane, David Lozano, Sarah Lyon, newsense enterprises, Brian Nicely, Cynthia Norton, Melissa Pokorny, Letitia Quesenberry, Chris Radtke, José Versoza, Matthew Waldbillig and Matthew Weddington.
The 2007 DePauw Biennial and its accompanying programs have been made possible by the generous support of the Indiana Arts 
Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Additional support has been provided by Neal Abraham, Donna Wiley and an anonymous donor. The exhibition is on view at the Richard E. Peeler Art Center through May 10. All events are free and open to the public. Learn more in this previous story.
The galleries at the Richard E. Peeler Art Center are open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; and Sunday 1 – 5 p.m., and are closed during University breaks and holidays. Click here for more information.
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