Rebecoming the Animal

Hannah Levy’s exhibition in The Arts Club of Chicago’s gallery, Surplus Tension, both invites and rejects corporeal engagement. Levy’s sculptural forms allure a viewer with skin-textured materials and references to furniture while simultaneously (even flirtatiously) distancing spectators with cold metal, peaked talons, and a juxtaposition of references that are both playful and unsettling.

Responding to the exhibition’s sharp edges and soft insinuations, dancemaker Courtney Mackedanz embodies an inquisitive movement interaction with the exhibition, joining Levy’s works in an artistic exploration of the relationship between the skin as a surface and the armatures of structure that lay beneath.

Taking Covid-19 surge cases into account, this program was hosted virtually on YouTube Live. Focused and formatted for video presentation, the work will be bookended with commentary and conversation about concept and process between Mackedanz and Chicago dance thinkers Ginger Farley, Alyssa Gregory, and Irene Hsiao. 

Premiere date: January 28,2022