Future Force Geo Speculators is a collaborative group founded by artists Carole Frances Lung, Ellen Rothenberg, and Christine Tarkowski. Their impulse to form this collective stems from their common interest in the use of “textile” as a creative and social medium. Though each artist intersects with the material within their creative production, each capitalizes upon unique aspects of “textile” as cultural or historic carrier. Their themes of collective or individual exploration include: histories of textile and garment manufacturing from cottage industry to global production; craft/art/design dialog; social and gendered histories of labor;and textiles as surface, sculpture, and architecture. The mission of FFGS is to function as an artist collaboration, which through research and production furthers the collective knowledge and output within this field.
"FFGS’s creative practice engages in a pluralistic production research format. We value the physical process of hand and studio based making as well as project driven research to generate ideas and artistic solutions. Our terrain of output is variable in that we do not prioritize one form of making over another. Forms of output will include architecturally scaled works, public proposals, propositional models and drawings, texts, performances, social actions, publications, and installations. We are interested in exploring the studios’ relationship to historical production, the interweaving of American craft and manufacturing traditions, utopic communities, Sci-fi Feminist authors, and the monumental relative to the inconsequential."
Sally Timms—a musician best known for her long involvement with the mekons—will contribute a sonic component to the exhibition. Timms has performed with Vito Acconci and Kathy Acker, occasionally writes crude broadsheets on popular culture and has directed several bawdy pantomimes at the Hideout in Chicago.
Curated by Sandra Binion.
GALLERY HOURS
Saturday & Sunday, 1–5pm
OR email info@ess.org to schedule an appointment
N.B.: The exhibition will be CLOSED during regular gallery hours on May 10-11, and June 14-15.