Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies

 

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Site-Specific Art Commissions

Works by contemporary artists, commissioned by Spertus over the years, are installed in several locations within the award-winning Spertus facility.

Called Consider, after the 1946 poem Schemà by Primo Levi, this site-specific commission by esteemed Indian artist Ranbir Kaleka, uses a hybrid of audio, video, and painting to create an open-ended reflection on the Holocaust.

Viewed at the far end of a magnificent light well, with the natural landscape of Lake Michigan as its backdrop, it presents powerful narratives that explore dehumanization but do not provide answers.

Ranbir Kaleka, in an interview with ArtAsiaPacific magazine about the piece, said the work addresses a "continued threat today to minority communities from those that are more powerful. My intention in the installation is to say that all life, irrespective of difference, is precious."

Consider takes approximately 12 minutes to experience in its entirety. It can be seen during exhibition hours and is free with exhibition admission.

This poignant memorial is made possible with support from the Bernard and Rochelle Zell Holocaust Center at Spertus. 

Across Time is interactive video installation by Chicago-based new media artist Lincoln Schatz. Beginning with the 2005 groundbreaking for the new Spertus facility, two cameras recorded images of visitors and lobby activity in the former Spertus building as well as the progress of construction on the new Spertus building. When the new facility opened in 2007, the work was moved to the 2nd-floor landing, where it continues to take and display images. Thousands of images are currently archived in its database and retrieved when movement in front of the screens activates the work. Layers of images are then visible, drawn randomly from live video, recent video from the present day, and video from the more distant past. Functioning as an observer of events and a chronicler of history, Across Time creates a multi-layered, evolving portrait of Spertus and its visitors.

Across Time can be seen, without charge, when the Spertus facility is open for general business hours.

Lincoln Schatz is a Chicago-based artist working in new media. He has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe and his work is included in numerous private collections. Recent projects include Esquire's 2008 Portrait of the 21st Century, a commission for the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) in Spain, an interactive work for the Greenwich Street Project in New York, and a large-scale public work for the 2006 Prague Biennial.

Spertus exhibitions are supported, in part, by a CityArts Program 4 Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, The Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, The Orbit Fund, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.