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overhearings: Mary Hennen & Regina Martinez in Conversation

  • Mana Contemporary 2233 South Throop Street Chicago, IL, 60608 United States (map)

October 26, 2023
noon-1:30 pm
FREE. Lunch will be provided.

Mana Contemporary has been a nesting site for Peregrine Falcons since 2000. The population of once-endangered falcons throughout Illinois is overseen by Mary Hennen of the Field Museum’s Chicago Peregrine Program. Through nest site monitoring, research and public education, the program works to better understand these amazing creatures and help them thrive throughout Chicago and the greater Midwest.

Artist Regina Martinez has dedicated the site-specific sound work overhearings, in response to the Peregrines' presence.

Join Mary and Regina for a casual lunch and conversation spanning themes of memory, sound, preservation and research. Lunch will be provided.

Regina Martinez is a sound centered artist based in Chicago. Her current experiments draw from an archive of infinitely personal recordings she relates to as soundmarks: her father's hands cleaning dried beans, drumline rehearsal after school, the creak of the front gate to home, the flap of our clothes outside on the line. Each recorded moment becomes its own instrument, its own layer of composition, and a washing and wringing out of memory meant to be overheard like a poem again and again. Most recently she is an artist-in-residence at High Concept Labs in Chicago, and received an MA in Sound Arts & Industries from Northwestern University.

Mary Hennen is the Assistant Collections Manager in the Bird Division at the Field Museum. In addition to her regular duties of caring for the ornithological collections, she directs the Chicago Peregrine Program. Mary has been involved with Peregrines since 1989 and took over as director in 1990. Work with Peregrines involves banding young, retrieving injured birds, and monitoring wild breeding pairs in Illinois. Be sure to check out her Illinois Peregrine Facebook page.

The Chicago Peregrine Program is a wide network of volunteers, all with a goal of helping reestablish Peregrines back in the wild. From Peregrine watchers to building owners, engineers, management personnel, wildlife rehabilitators, vet technicians, city workers, collision monitors, office workers, condo residents, librarians, power plant personnel, photographers, hack site attendants, technicians, educators, and everyone who has every let us know of a Peregrine sighting.

This program is led by Experimental Sound Studio, Monira Foundation, and Mana Contemporary Chicago.

overhearings is a partner event of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Support provided by BrightSign.