CHICAGO - Other than a brief introductory email exchange, I knew nothing about Tongji Philip Qian when I visited Alloyed Commitments at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts. Based on the solo exhibition, curated by Andrew Witkin, I would describe Qian as a conceptual artist whose practice takes place at the intersection of legibility and illegibility, purposefulness and futility, while working within pre-established blocks of time - something he consciously shares with the late Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara.
"There are people who do not know how to destroy fragments of their lives, even though they hinder their development," the Israeli artist Dov Or-Ner wrote in typewritten instructions for a conceptual art experiment in 1972, referencing a general desire to release things from the past that no longer serve us. "What is suggested here is to become free of whatever one chooses." As part of a landmark Israeli conceptual art project called Metzer-Meiser situated along the seamline of Kibbutz Metzer and the Arab village Meiser between June and October 1972, Or-Ner asked residents of both communities for personal items they were ready to shed, and buried them together as specimens to be unearthed at some future point.
If one were to take the art of Charisse Weston at face value, there would be plenty to deal with. Her sculptures are made of a variety of materials that include, in one piece, an inkjet print on canvas, 220 grit silicone carbide, shattered glass, slumped Mirropane, Solarcool breeze surveillance glass, shattered tempered glass, metal end cap, epoxy, ink and acrylic paint.
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