Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Paula Palombo

1.773.742.0983

ppalombo@extensiongallery.us

EXTENSION Gallery for Architecture

1835 S. Halsted St.

www.extensiongallery.us

Extension Gallery for Architecture, located in the Chicago Arts District, at 1835 S. Halsted St., presents Unseen Current — an interactive installation and exhibition of the work of Ball-Nogues Studio.

The exhibition opens Friday, March 14 th at 6:00 p.m. and runs through August 9 th. Extension Gallery for Architecture is open Saturdays and Sundays from 12 pm to 5 pm and on 2nd Fridays from 6 to 10 pm.

Unseen Current will be an atmospheric nebula that saturates Extension Gallery.  An immersive installation unknowable in its entirety when viewed from a single perspective, it invites visitors to navigate it like a dense rolling fog. Is it a body or is it a surface? Not exactly either, requiring over fifteen miles of brightly colored twine, 6000 sagging strings or “catenaries” will come together to form the project. Each catenary spans across the gallery and is unique in length. The designers are using custom software developed for the project by Pylon Technical to explore the form and compute the position and length of the individual catenaries.

Philip Johnson’s ethereal hanging-chain window treatments at the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building served as inspiration for the design. Ball-Nogues “sample” what was essentially a two dimensional decorative motif for Johnson then reinterpret it for their three dimensional spatial modulations in the gallery.

Ball-Nogues Studio is an integrated design and fabrication practice that creates products and experimental built environments to enhance and celebrate the potential for social interaction through sensation, spectacle and physical engagement while striving to infuse the matter of the built environment with a downstream purpose. For more information visit: www.ball-nogues.com  

Unseen Current is sponsored by Extension Gallery, The Graham Foundation, and the designer’s support provided by United States Artists.

Extension Gallery is sponsored by Podmajersky, Inc. and is located in the Chicago Arts District, where it joins more than 20 other galleries in one of Chicago’s most well established art and cultural communities. Through the 50+ year commitment of the Podmajersky Family, this vibrant community hosts a series of events throughout the year which are open to the public and contribute to the depth and variety of Chicago’s cultural landscape.

For more information about Extension Gallery and the Ball-Nogues Studio exhibition, please visit the gallery’s web site www.extensiongallery.us or contact Paula Palombo at 1.773.742.0983 or via email at ppalombo@extensiongallery.us. For more information on the Chicago Arts District, please visit www.chicagoartsdistrict.org or contact Julie Anna Welcher at jwelcher@chicagoartsdistrict.org .