GORDON HALL

Gordon Hall and Elijah Burgher
Witness Well (Stage for Chances Dances)
wood, paint, canvas, acrylic, hardware
2015

Collaboration of design of functioning stage for Making Chances,
the 10 year retrospective exhibition of the Chicago collective Chances Dances
at Gallery 400, UIC, Chicago, IL.
2015

Description written by Gallery 400: "Artists Elijah
Burgher and Gordon Hall collaborated on this commissioned stage on which the
Platforms performance programs will take place. Combining Hall's sculptural
interests in useful objects like platforms and seating with Burgher's
investigations into ritual space and symbolic pattern, this stage is both a
functional object and in the process of becoming a new artwork. The painted
canvas panels will be worn by use during the performance program, and will
remain as a souvenir or relic of the exhibition. The stairs are intended for
use as seating by gallery visitors as well as for the performers themselves.
The title, Witness Well, originates with the Hieronymous Machine, a piece of
occult technology intended for granting wishes, while also figuring the stage
as a space of witnessing, care, and an at-times unknowable receptacle."