Defibrillator Gallery is proud to present
Natalia Nicholson
FRI 17 and SAT 18 | 7PM
Rewound/Revision: ritual dilation of the neovagina and exorcism of rape trauma
Natalia Nicholson is a Chicagoland native and transgender performance artist. She did her undergraduate work in English, focusing on contemporary women’s poetry. She diversified her interests to include film, video art, theatre and fine art post-graduation. Most recently, she earned her Masters of Fine Art in Performance from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received the Clay Morrison Fellowship for Outsider Art.
My work is about identity and the skips and slips of identity that speak when communication errs and relational vestiges decay. Public spaces are governed by silent assumptions, whether those assumptions were surreptitiously grafted onto biology, culture, ability or experience. And I’m interested in publicly weathering my alienation from those fixed positions, giving my body the freedom to read itself aloud for poetic rhythms that might arise through passed moments and present memories. I draw heavily from autobiography, attempting to heal from psychological wounds through the communal act, shared story and communally experienced object/image.
photos courtesy of the artist
Christine Shallenberg is a multimedia artist whose work ranges from performative physical encounters to mediated light and sound installations to choreography performed by the audience. Her current work is tuned to JCSpaceRadio, a broadcast organization exploring the physicality of frequencies.
Special Thanks to Seek Vintage and Defibrillator Apprentices for craft work
plus Latch-Hook Art by Dana Durfee