Sonnenzimmer: "I'm not trying to change anything, I'm just changing."
I'M NOT TRYING TO CHANGE ANYTHING, I'M JUST CHANGING
Saugatuck Center for the Arts
Works by Nadine Nakanishi and Nick Butcher
March 8 - May 18 2019
What happens to perception when our visual worlds become increasingly virtual? How does physical touch affect how we navigate digital worlds- and vice versa?
In an era when our fleeting moments bear timestamps, conscious curation replaces recollection, and our memories live in the cloud, how do we reclaim our physical connection to place, to each other, to the present moment, while navigating this shifting landscape?
These are some of the questions raised by Sonnenzimmer’s latest exhibit, I’m not trying to change things. I’m just changing.
Sonnenzimmer is Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi, both giants in the Chicago art and design world and beyond. The pair first made a name for themselves through their innovative approach to poster-making, a medium that continues to inform their process. Capitalizing on the democratic, D-I-Y spirit of the poster while pushing past its transactional associations, they create new visual worlds that invite us to challenge notions of graphics as static products or symbols.
I’m not trying to change anything. I’m just changing offers an alternative narrative to binary ways of thinking about virtual vs. physical; analog vs. digital. Rather, these works reveal existing connections between physical touch and graphic image, object and sound- connections that provide the foundation for today’s digital interfaces.
Here, Sonnenzimmer presents graphics as shape-shifting surfaces to be deconstructed and reconstructed, collapsed and inflated, reduced and amplified. In a humorous series of touch-triggered gestures, images become objects, and objects emit sound waves. Prints pose as paintings, and indirect marks mimic the hand-drawn. Still, through all the layers, the playful presence of the hand is undeniable. This physical presence reminds us that we each have a stake in navigating this new virtual world.
Here, we are presented with navigational tools of improvisation, play, and fluency. Embracing the fluidity of graphics is key to maintaining creative agency amidst a changing visual world. Only then do we begin to see graphics as active surfaces that reverberate with possibility.
-Tori Pelz, Curator
