Part of what makes making bumper stickers—or really any multiple—so exciting is that as each one leaves our trunk, it makes its way into the world on its own. We love checking in on the work, seeing them around town is a joy and receiving pictures of them in the wild is a pleasure (hint hint). But the bulk of the stickers go out into the world and we lose touch. They may meet someone or something and stick around there for a while. Sometimes they stay in a drawer or a frame waiting for attentive rods and cones. Inevitably, though, each member of the litter is finally able to actualize its own destiny, answering, for themselves, the question of where does art live?

Last month’s sticker, by Eric Watts, takes either a mirror (which most cars ought to have anyhow) or a quick mind to ascertain fully. Installed on the front bumper of the gallery, it’s also our first work to receive a visible remnant of how much it’s touched a viewer. Or, in this case, a viewer’s bumper touched it and seems to have taken a tiny corner with it. Very well—you invoke the phantasmagorical, things are liable to get dramatic.

Watts’ opening featured an excellent soundtrack, clear jello cubes, mutant coconut shavings, lychees, seltzer-flavored bubbly water and ghost noodle salad. The crossroads proved lovely and lively, even if the undead lingered longingly. All of our openings are special—Chitty’s will be doubly so. File this under NO MISSING ALLOWED and meet us in the sky.

ABOUT ALEX CHITTY
Alex Chitty is a Chicago-based artist working fluidly across a wide-range of materials and processes, including printmaking, photography, sculpture and installation. Highly attuned to how things interact and how we interact with them, Chitty’s work operates as a series of constellations, misdirections and multiplicities. Born in Miami, Chitty earned a BA at Smith College and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She teaches at the Museum of Contemporary Art, SAIC and Columbia College. Her work has exhibited widely at spaces like Roots and Culture, Corbett vs. Dempsey, LVL3, Alderman Exhibitions and is represented by Andrew Rafacz Gallery.

ABOUT TRUNK SHOW
TRUNK SHOW is a mobile exhibition space often located near Chicago’s Eckhart Park. Following in the rich tradition of Chicago’s apartment, alternative and creative exhibition spaces, Trunk Show is committed to challenging exhibition forms through its unique program. We feature monthly solo shows for which artists are commissioned to design a limited edition bumper sticker. The sticker lives, rides along with, and helps propel the medium beat up 1999 forest green Ford Taurus owned by Raven Falquez Munsell and Jesse Malmed. In addition to the month-long exhibitions, the editioned bumper stickers are sold (from the trunk) for a collector-friendly price and by annual subscription (SOLD OUT! Stickers still available à la carte). Openings follow a nomadic, symbiotic logic and include a public affixing, radio jams, and road snacks. Newcity named it The Best New Gallery on a Car Bumper.

Upcoming artists include Stephanie Barber (in Baltimore) and Bryce Wilner.

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Tags: ALEX CHITTY, bumper stickers, Moving Image Gallery, Seeing Double, Street Art, trunk show