WE Two : Aliens and Extra-Terrestrials (Becky Grajeda and Rachel Ellison)

WE is a monthly experimental music/performance series, curated by Lia Kohl and Bethany Younge, focused on work that explicitly acknowledges the community or collective nature of performance. The series aims to activate and redefine the relationships between artists, performers, composers, and audiences.

Chicago based artists Rachel Ellison and Becky Grajeda will present pieces related to bodily and mental awareness and health.

Tickets: $10

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Rachel Ellison: Gymnasium for the Soul, Phase Three: Empathic Exercise Class

Gymnasium for the Soul (GFS) is a process-driven alternative exercise experience that develops in three stages. In phase one, one-on-one interviews are conducted, focusing on the particularities of the interviewee’s own experience of having a body. In Phase Two, interviews serve as a starting point for transforming individual stories into exercises in a workshop setting. Finally, in Phase Three: GFS Empathic Exercise Classes, a selection of exercises created in Phase Two are presented in a class environment led by an instructor. Throughout the class, students engage in an array of collective gestures and bodily memories brought to them via experiences of participants in Phases One and Two.

Prepare to engage in the process. Comfortable clothing recommended. Students of all physical capabilities are welcome.

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Becky Grajeda: Intake
Performed by Becky Grajeda, Emily Hutchings, Beth MacDonald, Neal Markowski, and Jacob Miller

In Intake, Grajeda addresses mental health intake procedures through a five-channel text-sound performance.

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Rachel Ellison is an artist, writer, and sculptor of experiences based in Chicago. Rachel creates performance-events called Rehearsals for Ways of Being using strategies to rethink, recontextualize, and reperform scenes of everyday life. In January 2016 she founded Bat Sarah Press, a company exploring aspects of spirituality and ritual through artfully made objects. Regular practices that include therapy, exercise, eating roughage, Vitamin D, and a daily dose of Lexapro help her to maintain chemical equilibrium.

Becky Grajeda is a sound artist based in Chicago. Her works of sound assemblage, multi-channel installation and performance frequently include field recordings of the sounds of mechanical objects and/or in involve abstracting vocal inflection, intonation, and intended meaning in speech. In her recent site specific performances she plays with the audience’s perceptions of sound within physical space. Her work has been exhibited or performed in Chicago, Paris, England, Finland, and in the Czech Republic. In 2014 she received a grant from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to document three of her performative sound works.