The Frantic Desire for Almost Real
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The Frantic Desire for Almost Real, 2021 at Chicago Artists Coalition. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
The Frantic Desire for Almost Real, is a duo exhibition featuring new works by HATCH residents Bryan LeBeuf and Gericault De La Rose, and curated by Fabiola Tosi, on view from January 29 - March 11, 2021 at Chicago Artists Coalition.
The exhibition explores connections between identity, collective memory, and authenticity. The Frantic Desire for Almost Real “arises only as a neurotic reaction to the vacuum of memories” (Umberto Eco, Travels In Hyperreality). The displaced body is central to the constant search for cultural memories as a way to affirm one’s identity, the Real. This process however is complicated by the inconsistent relationship between reality, perception and the concept of authenticity. The Real is a fixed identity that exists as an ideal version of the self. Almost Real is a transitional identity, slipping in and out of liminal spaces or in-between fixed designations, as Homi K. Bhabha¹ describes in their meditation on “the authentic”. In a vacuum of memories, the Almost Real is frantically desired by the displaced body.
The works of Bryan A. LeBeuf and Gericault De La Rose stand as a representation of the complexities faced by a displaced body — may this be an individual or a community — whose desire is to affirm their identity. Constantly in flux between longing and belonging, the subject of this neurotic search fails to recognize that the unbalanced, unsteady Almost Real is in fact the expression of one’s identity.
Read the full curatorial essay.
The exhibition explores connections between identity, collective memory, and authenticity. The Frantic Desire for Almost Real “arises only as a neurotic reaction to the vacuum of memories” (Umberto Eco, Travels In Hyperreality). The displaced body is central to the constant search for cultural memories as a way to affirm one’s identity, the Real. This process however is complicated by the inconsistent relationship between reality, perception and the concept of authenticity. The Real is a fixed identity that exists as an ideal version of the self. Almost Real is a transitional identity, slipping in and out of liminal spaces or in-between fixed designations, as Homi K. Bhabha¹ describes in their meditation on “the authentic”. In a vacuum of memories, the Almost Real is frantically desired by the displaced body.
The works of Bryan A. LeBeuf and Gericault De La Rose stand as a representation of the complexities faced by a displaced body — may this be an individual or a community — whose desire is to affirm their identity. Constantly in flux between longing and belonging, the subject of this neurotic search fails to recognize that the unbalanced, unsteady Almost Real is in fact the expression of one’s identity.
Read the full curatorial essay.
Top: Untitled, Bryan LeBeuf, 2020. Bottom: Ima RealTM Diamond, Gericault De La Rose, 2020. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Expedition Through the Authentic: Resist Imprint, Gericault De La Rose, 2020. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
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Ima RealTM Diamond, Gericault De La Rose, 2020. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
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Related Programs
Recipe Box is an online platform that collects artists contributions on the topic of displacement and cultural consumption. Artists are invited to reflect on how culture is consumed and how this process can influence discourses of identity in relation to the displaced body. The format of the recipe is reinterpreted by participating artists, to become a collection of reflections on better practices of cultural consumption, challenging norms that are rooted in western-centric practices of interpretation and access to non-western cultures.
The Frantic Desire for Almost Real, 2021 at Chicago Artists Coalition. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Archives of Collective Memory is a video interview with artists Bryan LeBeuf and Darryl DeAngelo Terell, moderated by curator Fabiola Tosi. In this conversation, the artists discuss non-traditional archival practices used to document collective memories and how these can become tools for communities to regain agency over displaced neighborhoods, with a focus on their home city of Detroit.Paragraph.
Untitled, Bryan LeBeuf, 2020. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
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Schoolcraft & Vaughn, Bryan LeBeuf, 2020. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
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Beechwood, Bryan LeBeuf, 2020. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.