As the biannual Estrogen Fest prepares to open Friday, female artists in the Chicago area get a chance to grab a bit more of the arts scene spotlight.
The fest, which runs May 13-June 5, features live music, theater, dance, poetry, visual and performance art. While it highlights many original works by female artists, it’s not the only game in town for women seeking to express themselves creatively.
At various venues around Chicago, other women are making statements with their art, addressing topics as timeless and as disparate as war, the culture of food, and music’s role in society.
To give you a flavor of the themes currently running through female artists’ works, here’s a look at four, two of whom are participating in Estrogen Fest.
Marilyn Campbell
Writer-actress, Estrogen Fest co-artistic director and producer
Work: Chamber theater piece titled “War Protest 1914.”
Inspiration: Women’s anti-war writings from 1914 to 1919; International Manifesto of Women delivered by the International Suffrage Alliance to the British Foreign Office on Aug. 7, 1914; and World War I statistics of 10 million dead, 20 million wounded and 2 million to 13 million civilian casualties.
The back story: Campbell’s 12-minute piece is having its world premiere at Estrogen Fest, which encompasses theater, dance, spoken word and visual art. The piece includes a poem by a soldier’s wife who contemplates her disrupted life as she knits a pair of socks by the fire. She is joined by other characters: a war widow lamenting her loss, a Red Cross nurse at the front surveying the carnage around her, and a restless seer who dreams of hydrogen bombs dropping. “All the women have knitting needles and are dressed in red,” says director Kimberly Senior. “We’re stitching together these voices as they try to make sense of the past, present and future.”
Campbell’s perspective: “These women didn’t want to begin a new century with a war. I think it’s the same for the new millennium–but here we are at war. This is not a preachy piece. We just want to show the impact of war. It’s got a lovely quality to it. It’s very female.”
When and where: Previews May 11, festival May 13-June 5, Storefront Theater, in Gallery 37 for the Arts, 66 E. Randolph St., Chicago. Cost: $15. 312-742-TIXS (8497).
Kristen Neveu
Visual artist
Work: Works on view at two locations: sculpture at Estrogen Fest, and an exhibit of sculptures, small found-object installations and photography, “Parallels to the Common,” at Polvo Gallery.
The back story: Neveu will display her painted-wood, found-object chandelier sculpture during the run of Estrogen Fest. Her collages often combine distressed wood and glass fragments that allow her to “dissect an image in a physical way,” Neveu says. She aims to give new meaning to dilapidated or discarded objects.
Inspiration: Wood (Neveu once worked at a lumberyard in her native Iowa) and discarded materials. Her ongoing goal is to “project a sense of possibility in the abandoned.”
Neveu’s perspective: “I’ve always had an interest in the past. I collected magazines and fashion ads and did collages. I’m interested in cultural trends and the idea of recycled art. I go to demolition sites to collect splintered wood, metal and glass. … I then reconstruct [thru collage or sculpture] the moment I tried to capture with my camera.”
When and where: Previews May 11, festival May 13-June 5, Storefront Theater, in Gallery 37 for the Arts, 66 E. Randolph St., Chicago. Separate exhibition, June 17-July 9, at Polvo Gallery, 1458 W. 18th St., Chicago. Free. 773-344-1940.
Michelle Kranicke
Dancer-choreographer
Work: “Chewing” (premiered in January in New York).
Inspiration: Laura Schenone’s book, “A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove.”
The back story: After Kranicke read Schenone’s book, she decided to create “Chewing,” an abstract, evening-length “movement essay” on the culture and ritual of food. In it, her all-female modern-dance troupe examines the physical experience of the labor and sensuality of food. Schenone’s book chronicles the development of cooking in the U.S., beginning with Native Americans and ending with the current period. Kranicke incorporated ideas from this timeline into a dance that explores the connection between what we eat and our identities.
Kranicke’s perspective: “Food–it’s almost like breathing. We’re not conscious of it. [In Schenone’s book], I was intrigued by people who went to great lengths to preserve their cultural culinary experiences, like the pioneer women who would roll out pie crusts in their wagons. I really started thinking about food and our relationship to it. In rehearsal, the dancers whipped cream and eggs by hand and peeled potatoes to get a sense of the physicality, pleasure and ritual of food.”
When and where: 8 p.m. May 19-21, Zephyr Dance, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Pkwy. Cost: $17-$20. 773-489-5069.
Dorothy Marcic
Management professor, singer, producer
Work: “Respect: A Musical Journey of Women” (premiered in 2003 in Nashville).
Inspiration: 20th Century pop songs, including “I Wanna Be Loved by You,” “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” “Hero” and “Material Girl.”
The back story: In preparation for a lecture for corporate leadership workshops, Marcic had researched 20th Century pop music and discerned a pattern of women’s journeys from repression to independence. The lecture by Marcic, based in Nashville, grew into the musical revue, now in an open run at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts.
Marcic’s perspective: “I’ve done over 1,500 workshops for women, and I feel like I really know the Baby Boomer group. As I studied mainstream music, I learned that it followed my own pattern–that was my journey, too. I wanted to raise a certain consciousness, to help women understand the messages coming at them through popular music. I noticed that these songs reflected the progress of women over the decades, from needy and co-dependent to angry, cynical, independent and celebrating an inner strength. Today I see two things happening in pop music: strong women and a slutty, sexy path, which is alarming–the idea of getting power through that kind of cheap sexuality.”
When and where: In an open run Wednesdays through Sunday at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green St. Cost: $39-$45. 312-327-2000.
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