ARTIST STATEMENT
Walking the fine line between inverting stereotypical female iconography and reproducing it, Julie Laffin navigates the territory where meaning gets mediated through the female body. The artist often creates a spectacle to engage the audience; the spectacle of a woman adorned with a gown of enormous proportions. In choosing specific sites that provide the appropriate context for her investigations, she often transforms mundane spaces into highly charged ones to meet her own agenda.

The theme of "the dress" has been an ongoing iconographic source in Laffin’s work for almost twenty years. The artist says this about her use of "the dress"

"Clothing not only engages the body in a direct way but is also encoded with existing meaning, often invoking class and gender politics. I couldn’t agree more with feminist theorists who have pointed out that women’s bodies are frequently the site(s) where ideologies get played out or "performed" in our culture."

A consuming part of each piece is the process of making the garment. This includes the conception, design, construction, and finally the wearing of overly large gowns. Each garment is always problematic and yet completely wearable. Laffin views the dresses as sculptures that are activated through her performances. The performances are often durational in nature, each lasting at least several hours, and often traveling from one site to another within a given performance. In recent years, the work tends to occupy public spaces rather than theatrical or private ones.

Though the artist’s actions and events occur over time, the work can often be viewed, abandoned and returned to again, much like two and three-dimensional art. Laffin describes herself as a visual artist working in a multidisciplinary tradition that requires the dynamics of time to complete the images she makes.
In addition to numerous performances in Chicago and the midwest, Laffin has performed in New York at Franklin Furnace Archive, The Streetwise Festival of Live Art in Glasgow, Scotland and the New Art Gallery in Walsall, England.

Julie Laffin email: jlaffin@yahoo.com

RESUME

Selected Performances and Exhibitions-Group Shows
4/04 "Incoming Wounded" performance/installation PAC/Edge Festival, Athenaeum Theatre, Chicago
11/04 "Monument: Bodies on Foreign Soil" Performance/installation with Dolores Wilber. Site Unseen Exhibition, Chicago Cultural Center.
8/03 "3-City Exchange" WAX, Brooklyn, NY. Performance/installation.
11/03 "In Situ" Performance/installation. Rhinoceros Theatre Festival. Chicago Cultural Center.
6/03 "Alterations" Group Exhibition with Jan Estep, Julie Laffin, Nina Levy, Natasha Spencer. The Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL.
6/03 "3-City Exchange" Links Hall, Chicago and Freehold Theatre Seattle, WA
5/03 "Confessions of the Avant-garde". Cleveland State University Art Gallery.
3/03 "Long For" Performance w/video. Suburban Fine Arts Center, Highland Park, IL.
5/02 "Long For" Performance w/ video. Artemisia Gallery, Chicago
12/01 "More Words" performance at the "Stray" Show. Sponsored by TBA-Chicago
10/01 "Triple World" Benefit for the Riverside Arts Center, Riverside, IL. Performance.
7/01 "Shut Up" Toronto, Ontario. Trinity Bellwoods Park. Group show on the theme of wrongful incarceration. Performance/installation
5/00 "Libidinal" TBA Exhibition Space, Chicago. Performance/installation piece, "Straight Up".
1/00 "Armed and Dangerous" Reicher Gallery, Barat College, Lake Forest, IL. Performance/installation.
10/99 "Census Dress" The New Art Gallery and Metropolitan Borough Council of Walsall, England. Performance/installation.
10/99 "Jr." with Stephen J. Bottoms. Glasgow, Scotland. Walking piece originating at the Sauchiehall Street Mall.
4/99 "You are the Salt of my Earth" Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, IL. Performance/installation.
4/99 "Jr." with Stephen J. Bottoms. Walking piece starting at the Judson Church, NY, NY.
10/98 "Streetworks Festival of Live Art" Glasgow, Scotland. Performance/installation. Including Exhibition at Street Level Gallery. Glasgow, Scotland.
9/98 "About Her(e)" The Riverside Arts Center, Riverside, IL. Performance and solo exhibition.
8/98 "Eleveneleven" Toronto/Chicago Performance Exchange Show. Artemisia Gallery, Chicago. Outdoor performance.
12/97 "Small Sacrifice" Artemisia Gallery, Chicago. Performance and solo exhibition.
9/97 "Fixing Ephemera" Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago. Photo installation of performance works with Christine Di Thomas.
8/97 "Supine" The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Performance.
11/96 "Time Arts Chicago" The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Installation.
8/96 "Over" The Cleveland Performance Art Festival. Cleveland, Ohio. Performance.
6/96 "The Red Gown Perpendicular" The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Performance with Dolores Wilber.
6/96 "The Red Gown 2" N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago. Performance with Dolores Wilber.
1/96 "What's Love Got to Do With It?" Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago. Performance/installation. Performance of "Kiss Piece"
10/95 "Various Sates of D(u)ress" The Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany. Performance.
5/95 "Various States of D(u)ress" The Women's Theatre Festival, Philadelphia. Performance.
4/94 "Various States of D(u)ress" Franklin Furnace Archive, New York. Solo performance.

Grants and Prizes
Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for 2000
Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for 1998
Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for 1994 Franklin Furnace Archive, NYC. "Artists in Exile" grant, 1994
The Brian Lathrop Traveling Time Arts Fellowship, 1990

Education
1990 M.F.A. The School of the Art Institute, Chicago
1986 B.F.A. The University of Illinois, Chicago

Selected Reviews and Articles
March, 2004. Trans-Global Readings: Crossing Theatrical Boundaries, Ed. Caridad Svich. Manchester University Press. Julie Laffin interviewed by Stephen J. Bottoms.
July 18, 2003. Interview by Kristin Brooke Schleifer, Mouth to Mouth magazine: www.mouthtomouthmag.com/laffin.html
August 19, 2001. The Chicago Sun-Times. "Art of dressing up", Lisa Lenoir.
May 18, 2000. The Chicago Sun-Times. "Reviews: Libidinal", Margaret Hawkins.
Fall 1998. Performance Research. "Subsoil on the Sidewalk: Julie Laffin and the Chicago Underground", Stephen J. Bottoms.
August 1997. Muse Magazine. "Artfully Dressed", Laura Tillotson.
July 4, 1997. The Chicago Tribune. "Art Museum is Taking Laffin's Garb Lying Down", Chris Jones.
August 1, 1997. The Chicago Reader. "In Performance: Julie Laffin's Heavy Threads", Carol Burbank.
August 22, 1996. The Chicago Reader. "The Frayed Fringe", Jack Helbig.
May 16, 1995. The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Festival at the Arts Bank", Deni Kasrel.
March 8, 1995. The Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Chicago Artist Performs Under D(u)ress", Sheila Simmons.
March 1, 1995. Cleveland Free Times. "Julie Laffin's dress: A Car-Stopping Show", Frank Green.

Other
Radio 2/96 This American Life-description of piece and interview.
Radio 1/96 WBEZ-Chicago. Interview with Aaron Freeman