Karen Reimer
Thursday, 12 January 2006
6:00 p.m. Lecture
Price Auditorium
In January every year, The Society for Contemporary Art focuses attention on the very best artists working in Chicago. Karen Reimer explores notions of context and limitation by creating embroidered interpretations of contemporary ephemera. By using the labor-intensive medium of needle and thread, Reimer implicitly addresses women's work and the construction of
feminine identity. Transformed through craft, throwaway items such as the torn-off edge of a Federal Express® receipt and a Juicy Fruit® gum wrapper turn into unique objects d'art, as the artist replicates by hand what is ordinarily mass-produced. Reimer explains: "Generally speaking, copies are of less value than originals. However, when I copy by embroidering, the value of the copy is increased because of the elements of labor, handicraft and singularity-traditional criteria of value. The copy is now an 'original.'"
Reimer received an MFA from The University of Chicago. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Goshen College Art Gallery, Indiana and at the Hyde Park Art Center. Her work was included in Stalemate at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and at Baltimore/Chicago at the Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, both 2004. (saic)