Kansas City, MO Friday November 4th Subterranean Gallery will host a public reception from 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. showcasing new work by artists Robert Chase Heishman and Paul Shortt. The exhibition will feature video works, photographic prints, and interactive sculptures. Visitors are welcome to join us in the gallery the following afternoon at 1:00 pm for an artist talk and coffee.
How To Do Something, All Alone, By Yourself brings us to a place where we can see the moments that shape human identity. Heishman’s videos and photographs aim to embody the crisis of individuality. He shows us his attempt to form a relationship and compare himself to his soap opera namesake Chase Gioberti. Shortt’s videos and sculptures remind us of how foreign it is to fully adopt society’s rules. His work presents opportunities for spectators to feel their personal agency limited, while at the same time pointing to an emancipation.
Robert Chase Heishman presents a recent suite of work that is part of his larger My Falcon Crest project. My Falcon Crest, which began in 2009, centers around an exploration of Heishman’s discovered namesake: 1980’s Falcon Crest soap opera star — actor Robert Foxworth, who played the character, Chase Gioberti. In his current series of videos and photographs, NAMESAKE, Heishman physically grooms, feeds, bubble-bathes, (and so on) various photographic prints of his soap opera “elder”. The videos in this suite reveal the sequence of actions enacted upon the photographic print, while the final, partially eroded print is displayed as a record of the communion with the image.
Robert is an artist living and working in Chicago, Illinois. He has held residency at the Charlotte Street Foundation, and is in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Heishman received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2008, where he double-majored in Photography and Art History. Currently, he is earning his MFA from Northwestern University’s Art Theory and Practice department, expecting to graduate in 2012.
Paul Shortt’s new video series depicts his attempts to perform simple actions that have larger, more complicated cultural meanings. First in this series, Fly the Flag, Shortt attempts to get the American flag to fly at full mast but encounters numerous pitfalls and setbacks. In Breakdown, Shortt literally and figuratively breaks down on the side of the road. Paul will also be presenting some of his recent sculptural works that will engage viewers through interactions. In mirrored pillory, participants are put in a stockade that reflects viewers’ image. In Time Out Zone, a sign that conforms to the corner of the gallery directs the viewer into the act of time out. This new series of works continues to put not only himself, but also participants into awkward funny and uncomfortable situations.
Paul received his BFA in Painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2009. From 2009-2010, he directed a monthly, year-long series of performance art at the Fishtank Performance Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, called The Paul Shortt Invitational Performances. He has participated in the Charlotte Street Foundation residency program in Kansas City, and spoken about his work at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Shortt currently is pursing his MFA in New Media at The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and expects to graduate in 2013.
