Friday, April 22, 2011

Let's Get Started

Let us introduce ourselves. We are Royce Deans and Tali Farchi, we are visual artists, painters to be exact. We are from Michigan, USA and The Netherlands respectfully. Our collaborative efforts started in 2007 with a painting exhibition in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in conjunction with the Fringe Festival there and Tali's original multi-media, multi-disciplinary show Mo(ve)ment.
Tali's laptop and carry-on in Amsterdam before boarding the flight to Chicago.
Since that time we have been doing collaborative projects and exhibitions in the U.S., Canada, Israel and Europe. When we go to these places we do our best to draw inspiration from all that the local setting has to offer. Because of our love for music and our involvement with it and with other disciplinary projects, we love to work with local musicians where ever we go.

Our efforts recently have been to set a work space where we can work intensely for a week or two painting and drawing on the local sights, sounds and smells. In 2010 we formalized our idea and called it The Colorboration Project. By March 2011 we had proposed and organized the newest version of this project with the help of The Phantom Gallery Chicago and  I AM Logan Square and it became, The Colorboration Project Chicago.

After months of planning, on 10 March 2011 Tali landed once more at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, this time via United Airlines. Upon her arrival we made our way directly to 2515 N. Milwaukee Ave., what would soon be our base of operations for the next couple weeks.

Street view of 2515 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
The maintenance man unlocked the place and let us in so that we could see the cavernous interior to this dusty and very raw 5800 square foot space. We were excited and could see so much potential in this place even though there were only two electrical outlets, four florescent light fixtures that sort of worked, one small ceiling mounted furnace in place only to keep the pipes from freezing and no bathroom facilities at all.

The raw empty space, the blank canvas.
This was the what happened in about the first two hours.

As we went through the space we also met Gabriel Patti, a curator from the Phantom Gallery and member of The Aperion Project. We were all hungry so Gabe suggested we sit down in El Cid for some fine Mexican food.

This was a full day, especially for Tali since she had been up for going on 24 hours straight, but this was not where our day would end. We still had to drive to Milwaukee, Wisconsin so we would be there for our show and workshop that would take place over the next two days at art supply store, Artists and Display.

1 comment:

  1. Wishing you both all the best. Your works are amazing and so are the both of you. I am proud to have met you. Hugs, Nancy & Cor

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