Artist: Alison Saar Title: Cake Walk (detail) Date: 1997 Media: wood, tar, hardware Dimensions: 80 x 24 x 18 inches Price: contact the gallery for price Fassbender Gallery 312.666.4302

Political Visions is an exhibition of works by four artists who deal with issues of identity, often from a viewpoint outside the political mainstream. Many of these artists deal with issues of racial identity and race relations especially cogent to our society. For example, Los Angeles-based sculptor Alison Saar creates giant figures of African Americans composed of recycled and frequently rough-hewn materials. She depicts the voiceless and disenfranchised on a scale too massive to be ignored. To the same ends, Amsterdam-based Roy Villevoye uses collaged objects and large format photography to document his performative actions. Creating color charts modelled against and even on people of diverse race, he carries issues of stereotyping and representation beyond the U.S. arena and all the way to Irian Jaya, a former Dutch colony. Portland artist Cynthia Pachikara further highlights the universal and timeless nature of these matters through the use of light installations depicting her memories and family history of India. Employing multiple video and slide projections, she allows the viewer to enter and alter her works, providing concrete examples of immaterial and drifting cultural memories. Chicago-based artist Edith Altman creates informative installations to explore social and political issues as they relate to Judaism. In this way, she expands this racial dialogue to encompass other arenas of discussion. For all their diverse ways, these artists share a common belief in the power of art to not merely document, but actively transform. They present their backgrounds and experiences for our perusal, in the hopes of initiating a dialogue for the betterment of all.