Silver by Chipka
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
I had reason to make a recent transit through Lakeview, with Corey. We were on our way somewhere else. We left his apartment, made a connecting train at Belmont Avenue, and saw something at odds with our present-day expectations. For a moment, things felt like 1989 all over again. In 1989, Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood was where one went for…well…numerous things. Students lived there: many from Columbia College, my alma mater. I can say one thing for Columbia College students in the waning days of the last century: they were a distinct group. Many of them wore hair in the colors of tropical fish, if they wore hair at all. It was nothing—if Columbia College students were involved—to see a silver lady, or walk across the street and into a performance piece in progress. There was something afoot in the late ‘80s, and Chicago was not immune to it. Laurie Anderson (one of my favorite artists) was well within her career—not too long after a short period in which she’d encase roller-skates in blocks of ice, and wear them on subway platforms as she spayed a violin (or something.) She played as long as the ice remained frozen. When her skates thawed out, she simply stopped playing and skated away. End of performance. This was in New York. Similar things happened in Chicago. AIDS was the new specter on the human horizon, and so it wasn’t unexpected to find an artistic AIDS protest taking place. Once, outside of Chicago’s Art Institute, two men in dapper suits stood in silence, passing glasses of water back and forth. The name of the piece was Two Men Exchanging Fluids. I was jealous of those two. I wanted to be the one responsible for that challenging piece of performance. Two Men Exchanging Fluids was a direct protest to the medical belief that the way to cure AIDS was to eradicate homosexuality. To top things off, the performers were straight guys, and—rumor had it—Columbia College students.
The late 1980s have ended. Lakeview has been neutered and rendered “safe.” Columbia College students are indistinguishable from whatever it is they’re indistinguishable from, these days. No one exchanges fluid outside of museums. Plays such as Alice in Womanland no longer appear in little dive theaters (here one day, gone the next) in Lakeview. There are no little dive theaters in Lakeview, and so it came as quite a nostalgia-inducing shock to see a silver woman waiting for a southbound train. Performance artists in Chicago have become an endangered species, but, once, there were countless artists other, garish things…charming monstrosities rubbed shoulders with musicians and sculptors, painters, writers, and poets: everyone ate pizza/sushi/chicken kabobs together and enjoyed their own individuality and encouraged yours. Such creatures remain, but ballerinas no longer walk mince along Belmont Avenue en-pointe in tutus and Kabuki theater makeup. Myths no longer whisper and slither in the city’s shadows, pulled forth by poets and performers and street urchins reading classical literature from tattered, mud-stained books. There is poetry here, there is myth; now, however, it has no voice. Too many poets have had their tongues cut out. The Tarot-card readers have vanished into the aethers they once read like paranormal soap operas.
The old Chicago is not dead, however; it simply sleeps and dreams of its re-emergence. I was reminded of that as I saw a silvery, shimmering woman, comfortably bored steps above a place where—once—a guy who called himself “Amoeba” begged for spare change so that he could get a new tattoo. He didn’t have any tattoos. He never needed the money: his panhandling shtick, along with his name, was all a part of his performance. I’m happy that a silvery woman reminded me of him. I only wish I knew her name.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all in the midst of a good week.
Comments (26)
Very cool!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the story :) STUNNING IN ALL SENSE :) ..../„,„/......... //^ ^ ...( =';'= ).......(/(•)) ..../♥♥........./''*'' ...(.|.|..|.|.).....(,,,)^(,,,)
Excellent scene dear Chip, very interesting capture, amazing witting as usual!
I love city art that appears in the most unexpected places. The Silver Woman is perfect, just standing there waiting for her train, into eternity. I suppose some people will stop and look, to others she's quite familiar. I was just talking to friends about things that pop up--they told me of a "thanks" tree, where people just hang pieces of paper with thanks for whatever needs thanking. No doubt some city father will come along and decided it's inappropriate, dangerous, or some other bad thing and have it removed. Hmm, off on a tangent here, but anyway, I like your silvery lady!!
all suited up and going places too. for all to see and wonder what going on. cool shot
I'm so glad you got this picture! I was attempting to wrestle my camera from my bag when the train roared into the station and obliterated this amazing shot. This picture is fracking brilliant and an instant favorite. I love this woman and her costume! Yes, this definitely back 20 years and more, to the cool Chicago I knew and loved, and that you've described so well. I remember that protest with the men "exchanging fluids"!!! I think it's funny that we at the same event, but wouldn't meet for another 10 years or so. Oh, the vagueries of life! Anyway, this is a fantastic shot, and it's good to see that somebody in this yuppie wasteland still has a pulse. Bravo!
Excellent image,
Oh, this shot tugs at my memories of street performers. The only place I see them anymore is in Waikiki, and some of them are so very good! Love the exchange of fluids thing, that's priceless!
Hah! Great slice of life. Way to be there.
This makes me wonder where performance lets off and real life takes over again. Is she waiting for the train? Or is she a statue, a passenger archtype? Will she still be there, standing just that way, when the train pulls out, or is she really on her way home, eager to get out of her street makeup? Love this.
Great shot. Outstanding image and narrative.
What a shot! so glad you got it, and thankyou for the wonderful read.
Could she be the Tin Man's sister? Great capture Chip. Always enjoy the way you lure us in with a fine image, set the hook with the first sentence or two and then take us for a pleasant ramble through memories and/or imaginings. Enjoying the ride:)
i enjoy to read your story again , great capture of this outstanding lady in silver!!
What Tara said! Maybe she's art personified, just coming and going from her job as a muse...
wonderful capture!!
What a catch my friend. Wonderful capture. I enjoyed your writing of your memories as well my friend. God Bless.
It's a reminder for me to take more trips to hollywood and vine you see the crazy but, if you look deep inside you understand it's all in the glory of entertainment" Love your story (as today no pain thus far, no headaches I'm able to read) thank you for the thought and the shot!~
Now, there's something you don't see every day...... I love the nonchalance of the two ladies, and the guy in the blue shirt looking at her. Cool shot, Chip
splendid image! great capture Chip!
Fantastic, really takes me to those times when I was one of the odd college students, doing their thing and not really having a care about anyone else. Excellent photo!!
Great scene with everyone seeming to be in their own world and doing their own thing.
Cool shot. Really a great find.
I think you've just hit on what is probably the biggest reason I like to go to renaissance festivals. There is a tiny refuge for the kind of geek who likes to don a character made up entirely in the strange confines of their own imaginations and go out in public to perform. Not for money, but simply to have some fun with like-minded folks. This lady is part of the wonderful independent and creative thread that still bravely holds its own in the corporatized and sanitized world so many would like to turn the U.S. into. That there are people like her in the world fills me with hope.
Cruise ships stop at Caribbean islands that still have street performers that are ‘dressed’ up like robots in silver garb etc. You can take a photo for $1 - $2 if you want to be in the photo too. I like this shot and it brings back some great memories. As always wonderful narrative to go along with the great photo. Dana
Awesome street art capture....would have been cool if Corey had been able to get a shot...would be neat to see two shots from slightly different viewpoints combined into one image.