Nomadic Studio was part of a larger city-wide thing called Studio Chicago. Nomadic’s October theme was “Teaching Artists’ Month” to mirror the City’s “Artists’ Month”. I’ve mentioned all the odd satellite spaces we worked in, and of course, we were able to bring in other simpatico organizations into our space. We organized a three-part week of programming with Angee Lennard and the fine folks at Spudnik Press. Angee started Spudnik in 2007 as a live/work art studio that has become a vibrant community-based art center in West Town. Spudnik offers classes and workshops with a heavy focus on print making. The first collaboration with Spudnik was the unveiling of a giant pair of prints by their artist-in-residence at the time, Jessica Caponigro.
Once again, the scale of today’s entry proves tricky to present on a screen, so I’ve made a pair of covers to give you both the big shot and the detail. Jessica Caponigro’s twinned prints, “Our Vanities Differ” each stood nine feet high and six across. From a distance, they were muted, yet imposing, but upon closer inspection, revealed hundreds of tiny hand-rendered prints. Both delicate and massive, like Rorschach blots in bloom. I think this was her first catalogue showing in the city, and it was cool to see such cool work from a new (to us) artist.
I distinctly remember installing these with Beth Wiedner, as we were asked to mount the prints on the wall without putting holes in the art. The whole thing was done with screws and magnets. You’d put a screw in the wall, put the corner of the art over it and snap a tiny disc magnet onto it to hold it in place. Delicate and elegant. But there were 72 of these magnets and they all had to line up perfectly. Massive and time-consuming. It took hours of careful work, and I think it ended up looking marvelous.
Jessica Caponigro
Website: http://www.jessicacaponigro.com/
Bio: In their interdisciplinary practice, Jessica Caponigro blends accessible and egalitarian concepts with ritual and performance to explore ideas of restriction and reproduction through writing, performance, and the creation of multiples. Caponigro’s research includes how those in power have used storytelling and reproducible media to control history, and how marginalized communities have used independent publishing to tell their own stories and fight back against oppressive systems.
Before its dissolution in 2017, Caponigro was a founding member of the non-anonymous W.I.T.C.H. Chicago. Caponigro frequently facilitates workshops and speaks on panels, recently at Harvard University, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Emerson College, the University of Kentucky, Oberlin College, and NYU Florence. They have facilitated numerous participatory performances, recently at Spaceus: Harvard Square, the Cincinnati Art Book Fair, the Future in Minneapolis, and in Boston Common. Caponigro has attended residencies in Estonia, Sicily, and the United States, including Zygote Press, ACRE, the Wassaic Project, and the Women’s Studio Workshop. In addition to solo exhibitions in Chicago and Baltimore, Caponigro’s work has been included in two-person and group exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Beverly Art Center, the Highland Park Art Center, the Chicago Artist Coalition, and the Nemeth Art Center. Caponigro currently lives and works on occupied Massachusett and Wampanoag land, where they operate Snake Hair Press, an independent publisher of zines and multiples.
