| The Present Tense |

Back in October, I had the pleasure of meeting and seeing the work of LA based artist EJ Hill.  We both were representing Defibrillator Gallery at the MDW Art Fair in Chicago.  In the midst of the bustle of the art fair, EJ stood as still as possible for 3 hours.  I instantly fell in [...]

Stillness is defined as a state or an instance of being quiet or calm.  It is also defined as the absence of motion.  Although stillness suggests inactivity, it can provide opportunities for focused movement and heightened sensation.  When contemplating these concepts in relation to contemporary art practices, Marilyn Arsem is one of the first artists [...]

Wall Melody from The Present Tense on Vimeo. In September 2011, I was invited to be part of an exhibition titled Time Body Space Objects, curated by Alice Vogler. For this exhibition, each artist was allotted an hour of performance time, on the theme of ‘commitment’. I wanted to create something that challenged me to [...]

For multi-media artist, Sue Murad, stillness is a way to experience rest, both in life and in art.   Murad describes her work as an intuitive engagement with form, disregarding notions of usefulness, common meaning, and prescribed narratives.  Much of Murad’s work operates in the territories of slippage between experimental dance, performance art, and visual [...]

Sitting With Cloud Gate October 21st, 2009, 7am- 5pm Chicago, Millennium Park On October 21st, 2009, Boston-based artist, Daniel S. DeLuca sat in front of Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park in Chicago from the hours of 7 am-5pm.    This was part of a series of actions in response to public art that DeLuca was [...]

Terror of History 2009  is not a piece that The Present Tense would normally show.  It isn’t performance art, it is a song and video created by Kid Romance on the subject of time passing and historical memory loss. The video is a compilation of still images that are glimpses of a time that have [...]

William Skaleski’s practice centers on the idea of being alone.  An aspect of loneliness that fascinates Skaleski, is the human instinct to seek comfort and feelings of safety in places or objects.  Skaleski creates performances that bring situations of loneliness into a public setting. Skaleski also uses movement as a way to externally convey internal [...]