Tina Lefauve + Sara Zalek

Cristal Sabbagh; photo by Ricardo Adame

John Thomure

Lichen Bouboushian

Zhenesse

Series: Relative Intensity Noise
Performance: 03

This exhibition features the work of five time-based artists: GoldGrrl, Lichen Bouboushian, TIna Lefauve, Cristal Sabbagh, John Thomure, Sara Zalek, Zhenesse
Curated by Rin Peisert

These artists create ephemeral works of live art. They work with objects and actions and present the artist’s body as living artistic material; both subject and object. These performances coexist within an enclosed social space and acknowledge the room as well as the artist's relationship to the viewer/participant for exactly what they are. Here, artists expand and condense time; existing alongside each other while each engaging in distinctive poetic gestures. These works may appear disjointed, uneven, and asynchronous alongside each other in their actions and in their logic. They are simultaneously solos and collectively a group performance; revealing the plurality of temporalities. 

“Temporality is obviously an organized structure, and these three so-called elements of time: past, present, future, must not be envisaged as a collection of ‘data’ to be added together…but as the structured moments of an original synthesis. Otherwise we shall immediately meet with this paradox: the past is no longer, the future is not yet, as for the instantaneous present, everyone knows that it is not at all:it is the limit of infinite division, like the dimensionless point.” 

 - Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness

Artist Bios

Tina Lefauve is an engineer who has always enjoyed the inherent  rhythms and drones of mechanical and electrical machinery.  Her creative processes focus on simple analog circuits and objects found in tool lockers, railyard gutters, and dusty basements.  She seeks situations to create sounds-scrapes that are outside of the conventional music performance paradigm.  Her goal is to make ‘noise music’ quietly that is approachable and multi-emotional.  She likes to sit on her porch late at night and listen to the freight trains and the hum of the city.

Sara Zalek is a maker of situations and curious objects.They create performances as learning and listening situations to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections. They enjoy wearing many hats. Zalek skillfully performs in both in person and online situations; most recently named an Esteemed Artist by The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). They have performed, curated workshops and produced citywide festivals at the Chicago Cultural Center, Elastic Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, High Concept Labs, Links Hall, Japanese Culture Center, CoProsperity Sphere, No Nation, dfbrl8r, Outerspace, and UrbanGuild in Tokyo, LightBox in Detroit, Arts+ Lit Lab in Madison, WI, B74 Raum für Kunst in Lucerne Switzerland, and many more.

Cristal Sabbagh’s performance practice, rooted in improvisation and Butoh, walks a line between the everyday, the divine, the personal, and the political. In embodying in her art transformational memories, while simultaneously celebrating pop culture and the experimental, she challenges power structures and awakens viewers’ senses. Working both in a solo capacity and with collaborators, Sabbagh is equally attuned to individual perspectives and collective structures. In various configurations, these collaborators have regularly engaged in improvised performances, opening up new avenues for Sabbagh’s material and conceptual exploration.  She is the creator and curator of Freedom From and Freedom To events that are improvisational performance environments which interrogate movement and sound.  In 2021 Cristal was awarded a 3Arts / Make a Wave Artist grant, and in 2023 she was awarded an Individual Artists Program grant from DCASE.

Zhenesse is interested in public and private social contracts and shifting spectators to participants. Chicago/New York 

John Thomure is a performance artist, curator, and writer whose practice focuses on collaboration, improvisation, and the excavation of local histories. His performances have engaged with underappreciated community spaces like the now closed Johnny O's Hot Dogs in Bridgeport as well as local artistic legacies like his dialogue with the late Lawrence Steger's unfinished ninth performance. In all cases, Thomure's work seeks to infiltrate everyday life to promote strategies of direct action, productive antagonism, and individual autonomy in our stagnating late capitalist society. His curatorial work with dfbrl8r at Site/less has showcased a wide range of Chicago's cultural community from noise bands like Nunn to established performance artists like Roberto Sifuentes. Thomure received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MA from the University of Chicago. His work has been presented in public projects like Open Sheds Used for What, local D.I.Y. spaces like No Nation and Ohklahomo, institutional art spaces like the Chicago Cultural Center, and arts publications like the New Arts Examiner.

Lichen Bouboushian is a genderqueer artist based in Chicago, with a history of practice in New York City, roots in rural Texas, and family ties to Lebanon and Armenia. They work within dance, experimental music/noise, and performance art. They build a rhizomatic practice through visible forays into performances and workshopping, and less visible forays into curating, writing, dialogue, modes of care and support, and resource sharing. They utilize “self-exposure and vulnerability in real, risky ways” [CultureBot, 2011], and produce “thought-provoking commentary on social limits” [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2016]. They have shared work in New York City at Dixon Place, JACK, Danspace Project, Issue Project Room, Center for Performance Research, and the Queens Museum. They have held residencies at New York Live Arts (Fresh Tracks) and Chez Bushwick, and Movement Research. They have also performed in Seattle, Madison, Athens, and Beirut, performing in festivals including New Genre Festival (Tulsa), Miami Performance International Festival, QueerNY and Queer Zagreb, Inverse Performance Art Festival, and Month of Performance Art-Berlin. They have shared their interdisciplinary teaching practice at universities in Kentucky, Beirut, and Mexico. They curated and hosted a seasonal interdisciplinary performance series at The Glove (NYC). They have performed for Jill Sigman/thinkdance, Yvonne Meier, Melinda Ring, luciana achugar, Daria Fain, and Kathy Westwater. They are a former member of NYC based collectives XHOIR (organized by Colin Self), Feminist Art Group (organized by IV Castellanos), and Social Health Performance Club. They created and facilitate the UNDOING AND DOING Social Practice Collective.

$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door