Everything And More: On the Makings of Bunny McKensie Mack
Bunny McKensie Mack discusses growing up in Chicago and becoming a trilingual facilitator, educator, activist, researcher, artist, and founder of the McKensie Mack Group.
All posts filed under: Interviews
Sutures: An Interview with Michael Khuth
Michael Khuth, a queer Khmer-American lens-based artist and independent curator, speaks about intuition, the parallels between collage and curation, and working with unconventional gallery spaces in pandemic times.
Navigating Systems of Support: The Double-Edged Sword of Success as a Disabled Artist
A discussion between five Chicago-based artists and arts administrators discussing the barriers to receiving support, creative solutions, and what they hope you’ll keep in mind when supporting disabled artists.
What’s There to be Proud of in Indiana?
Haley Glickman talks to different folks about their experiences being queer in Indiana while reflecting on the notion of queer utopia.
(Re)Materializing Dread: An Interview with Mayumi Lake and Stacia Yeapanis
Artists Mayumi Lake and Stacia Yeapanis reflect on personal experiences of coping with anxiety and trauma in the creation of their kaleidoscopic assemblages.
Time and Time Again: An Interview with Farah Salem
A conversation with artist Farah Salem on how she uses her art and art therapy practices to honor, challenge, and reimagine rituals and psychologies across generations and geographies.
Notes on Designing Cultural Change
Three founders of local design studios speak about designing for social and cultural change within Chicago’s communities.
Disabled Sanctuary: Interview with Sangi Ravichandran
Sangi Ravichandran talks about life, death, pain, and her current weaving practice.
Memoir, Mythos, and the Maximalist Practice of Cecilia Beaven
Artist Cecilia Beaven on international comic artists, Nickelodeon cartoons, the limitations of labels and how we shake them off or shape them.
Memorias, mitos y la práctica maximalista de Cecilia Beaven
Artista Cecilia Beaven sobre artistas de historietas internacionales, dibujos animados de Nickelodeon, y las limitaciones de las etiquetas, cómo las sacudimos o les damos forma.
EXTENDED BREAKDOWN(s) with Patric McCoy
Patric McCoy describes the places he frequented in Chicago throughout the 1960s-1980s, specifically bars like the Rialto Tap and the Cellar.
Archiving Through Social Media: An Interview With Alkebuluan Merriweather
Instagram archives, like Alkebuluan Merriweather’s @homagetoblkmadonnas, are pushing the boundaries of what digital archiving can be.
Snapshot: An Interview with Teshika Silver
A look into the practice and process of illustrator, designer, teaching artist, and spiritual cultural worker Teshika Silver.
The Evolution of a Thought: Interview with Marcus Pruitt
Poet and journalist Marcus Pruitt discusses the emotions that show up in his writing and what keeps him writing poetry.
Untitling Pleasures: A conversation with Hannah Levy on tension & sensation
Hannah Levy’s sculptures in the exhibition Surplus Tension at The Arts Club of Chicago exist between the realms of pleasure and repulsion.
To Speak For Yourself: On the Many Lives of Dorothy Burge
Dorothy Burge is a fabric and multimedia artist and community activist who is inspired by history and current issues of social justice.
The Evolution of a Thought: Interview with Abena Motaboli
Abena Motaboli’s poetry is rooted in her love of nature—a deep connection she first felt in the lush landscape of her home country, Lesotho.
The Power of Black Joy, an interview with artist Ariel Dannielle
The exhibition We Outside at Monique Meloche Gallery is an ode to Black women, the ones who start the trends with their multicolored hair, laid edges, and stiletto nails, the modern party girl, and survivor of a pandemic.
For the Land and Love of Freedom Fighters: Erin Sharkey, Zoe Hollomon, and The Fields at Rootsprings
Zoe Hollomon and Erin Sharkey co-run The Fields at Rootsprings in Annandale, MN, a site of healing and rejuvenation that centers queer and melanated artists, organizers, and healers.
biskaabiiyang: An Interview with Juleana Enright
Juleana Enright is an Indigenous queer writer, curator, and DJ living in Minneapolis.
Time, Tending, and Porosity: Elsa Muñoz and Chenoa Baker in Conversation
Artist Elsa Muñoz Indigenous histories, Mexican folkloric medicine, and eco-mysticism through her painting practice.
Seeing Something New: Discussing the “avant-garde” with printmakers Ben Blount and Sonnenzimmer
A look at the process of designing the catalogue and poster for Chicago Avant-Garde: Five Women Ahead of Their Time at The Newberry Library.
FOLD/UNFOLD: Interview with Gilda of Gilda Designer Thrift Boutique
In this iteration of FOLD/UNFOLD, row särkelä talks with Gilda Norris of Gilda Designer Thrift Boutique in Hyde Park. Gilda creates a hub of energy that allows people to tap in to their style dreams, to connect with other fashion lovers, and even to create a daytime place to see and be seen.
Disabled Sanctuary: Interview with Rise
Disabled Sancutary is a series in which carrie sarah kaufman chats with disabled artist friends about what their disabled sanctuaries look like. In this interview, carrie talks to the brilliant writer and artist, Rise.
EXTENDED BREAKDOWN(s) with All the Way Kay
EXTENDED BREAKDOWNS is a series of interviews and prose unearthing niche, often undocumented histories within Chicago’s dissipating nightlife (pre-pandemic). In this iteration, Jared Brown talks to multidisciplinary artist and DJ All the Way Kay.
Snapshot: Michael Workman at the Terrain Biennial 2021
Michael Workman tells Sixty about his piece Ghost Army on display at the 2021 Terrain Biennial.
Snapshot: A Conversation on the Terrain Biennial 2021 with Allison Lacher & Jeff Robinson
Featured image: Gina Hunt, XOXO at 1011 N. 6th Street, Springfield, IL. A colorful, geometric piece hangs in porch. The house is light blue with white trim. Plants grow in front of the porch. Photo by Jeff Robinson. Snapshot is a Sixty column that takes a quick look at art history as it happens in Chicago. We send artists and organizers six short and sweet questions to tell us about what they are doing right at this moment. For this feature, we spoke with curators Allison Lacher & Jeff Robinson, who organized the Enos Park iteration of the Terrain Biennial, an international public art festival on view from October 2 – November 15, 2021. Founded in Oak Park in 2011 by Sabina Ott, the Biennial is an act of radical decentralization, taking art from privileged urban centers and bringing it into everyday spaces. As a part of Terrain, there are 24 sites housing public art installations in Enos Park in alone. The theme for this year’s Biennial is K.I.T (keep in touch). Sixty Inches From Center: …
Tracing the Hours: An interview with Irina Zadov & others on archives and what time it is
Irina Zadov’s portrait series and accompanying conversations, “What Time Is It?” began only a couple of months after quarantine. It is a long process of asking Grace Lee-Boggs’ question: What time is it on the clock of the world?
Mourning Racial Categories: The Categories of Black & White
Mourning Racial Categories engages the visual and performing arts to tell the stories of how people in the United States were divided into a handful of unequally valued racial categories, such as Asian, Black, and White.
Snapshot: Laurie LeBreton at the Terrain Biennial 2021
Laurie LeBreton tells Sixty about the installation Collective Effervescence on display at the 2021 Terrain Biennial.